Kellyanne Conway may have just added “alternative laws” to her love for “alternative facts” and alternative terrorism massacres. Today, on Fox & Friends she helped Donald Trump use his position to promote his family's business interests when she encouraged viewers to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff.” Unfortunately, there’s a federal law preventing that kind of behavior.
Yesterday, Nordstrom announced it would stop carrying Ivanka Trump’s clothing line because of lack of sales. Daddy Donald Trump, who just defended Russian President Vladimir Putin’s murderous behavior nevertheless jumped on this American company that employs 72,500 people over its decision:
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
This tweet was made originally from Trump's personal account but was retweeted from his official POTUS account:
Just as alarming as the fact that Trump used his official role to attack an American business, was his suggestion that he needed a push from his daughter to “do the right thing.”
It’s true that there has been a big movement to boycott Ivanka’s and other Trump products but even the Fox News Trump flunkies of Outnumbered – who gave Trump a pass on his behavior – could not muster up much concern over it.
However, Conway joined her boss and Press Secretary Sean Spicer in using a taxpayer-funded position to promote a private Trump business. Appearing on Fox & Friends this morning, Conway gave an overt commercial for the Ivanka line:
CONWAY: Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would tell you. I hate shopping. I’m going to go get some myself today.
[…]
It’s a wonderful line. I own some of it. I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody.
But Conway appears to have violated federal law with those comments.
From The Washington Post:
Don W. Fox, former general counsel and former acting director of OGE, told The Washington Post that “Conway’s encouragement to buy Ivanka’s stuff would seem to be a clear violation of rules prohibiting misuse of public office for anyone’s private gain.”
He added: “This is jaw-dropping to me. This rule has been promulgated by the federal Office of Government Ethics as part of the Standards of Conduct for all executive branch employees and it applies to all members of the armed forces as well.”
Even Peter Schweizer thinks so, the Post noted:
Said Peter Schweizer, who has worked closely with Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon and wrote the book “Clinton Cash,” which was critical of donations to the Clinton Foundation: “They’ve crossed a very, very important bright line, and it’s not good. To encourage Americans to buy goods from companies owned by the first family is totally out of bounds and needs to stop…
Conway will probably get a pass from Trump but Twitter has given her a good verbal thrashing.
Watch Conway’s alternative ethics below, from the February 9, 2017 Fox & Friends, via Think Progress.
This is Kellyanne running over the speed limit sign and never slowing down. We are on a race to the bottom and Republicans are wearing blinders thinking we are climbing up a hill.