Mark Meadows: “Nobody Outside the Beltway Really Cares” About Hatch Act Violations

Mark Meadows has dismissed potential violations of the Hatch Act at the Republican National Convention by claiming nobody actually cares if that law is broken.

The Hatch Act forbids federal officials from participating in political activity while performing their official function. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo may have violated the act with his RNC speech on Tuesday.

But Meadows, the White House chief of staff, told Politico‘s Playbook that nobody beyond the Washington, D.C. bubble even cared about the possible lawbreaking.

Meadows said that for the “the vast majority” of Americans “nobody outside of the beltway really cares.”

“They expect that Donald Trump is going to promote Republican values, and they would expect Barack Obama — when he was in office — would do the same for Democrats,” Meadows said, providing no evidence.

“This is a lot of hoopla that’s being made about things, mainly because the convention has been so unbelievably successful.”

At least one person within the beltway does care: Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro. He’s initiating an investigation into Secretary Pompeo following his convention speech.

“The Trump administration and Secretary Pompeo have shown a gross disregard not only of basic ethics, but also a blatant willingness to violate federal law for political gain,” Castro said.

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Darragh Roche

Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media