Thread by @RepDonBeyer

As we get closer to Nov. 3 Donald Trump is growing more desperate to get reelected. He's proving there's nothing he wouldn't do to help his campaign.

Here are some ways Trump is recklessly abusing the power of the federal government – and your tax dollars – to get reelected. 1/

Trump has horribly abused taxpayer funds and official resources at HHS, repurposing COVID funds to spend on a propaganda campaign, trying to send potentially illegal "Trump drug cards" just before the election, and exerting political interference on pandemic response efforts. 2/

Trump is leaning heavily on the Attorney General and Secretary of State to use the official powers of the US government to attack and potentially prosecute Trump's political opponents just before the election. 3/

https://twitter.com/RNicholasBurns/status/1314908936156459008

Pompeo is also under investigation for potential violations of the Hatch Act. He has taken an unprecedented role as a campaigner, ignoring the historic role of the Secretary of State in representing US interests abroad as he throws himself into domestic politics. 4/

AG Barr keeps on announcing investigations or Justice Department moves that Trump desires for his reelection, which become campaign talking points for Trump within hours.

Barr has also weakened DOJ's longtime rule blocking the Department from interfering in elections. 5/

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, chosen because he was one of Trump's most loyal defenders in Congress, has politicized intelligence releases, sharing or withholding information in ways obviously designed to help Trump politically.

https://twitter.com/john_sipher/status/1318732410394202112

6/

Even Trump's National Security Advisor is campaigning for him in swing states. 7/ vox.com/2020/9/23/2145…

Trump has exploited the US military and Defense Dept in his reelection efforts, stealing taxpayer funds supporting the military for his border wall after lying that Mexico would pay, and setting up military families for reduced paychecks next year under his payroll tax scheme. 8/

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf staged a citizenship ceremony for the Republican National Convention, which is under investigation for violating the Hatch Act. nbcnews.com/politics/meet-…
He's using DHS operations to influence the campaign. 9/

https://twitter.com/NickMiroff/status/1311075316996157441

The Agriculture Department and Secretary Perdue have quietly been among the most corrupt in the Trump Administration. Recipients of food aid boxes are mailed a "letter from Trump."

Perdue recently violated the Hatch Act by campaigning for Trump using official resources. 10/

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, the former coal lobbyist, has been quietly visiting battleground states and targeting them with policy announcements for much of the year. 11/ washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost…

Policy announcements from the Department of the Interior have followed Trump and his campaign's targeting across the country. They aren't even trying to be subtle about this. 12/

For months the Secretary of Energy has found he has urgent business that requires him to travel on the taxpayers' dime to state after state that all seem to have something in common. Maybe Professor @LarrySabato can spot the pattern here. 13/

They're so busy with this taxpayer-funded battleground state travel in fact that when Health and Human Services Secretary Ben Carson showed up in Wisconsin last month it turned out he was the fourth Cabinet official to visit the state that week. 14/

Trump's Veterans Affairs Secretary refused to show up for a hearing scheduled by Senate Republicans on implementing a new law on veterans' care, saying he hadn't had enough notice.

He's spending much of the fall campaigning for Trump, and may have violated the Hatch Act. 15/

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is pitching in with political interference with the Census, which could jeopardize fair elections for years to come. He even went so far as to defy a court order (until the Supreme Court bailed him out). 16/

I know this is getting repetitive but Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is ALSO under investigation for violating the Hatch Act after she went on FoxNews and used her official position to attack Trump's political opponents. 17/ nytimes.com/2020/09/22/us/…

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has been more focused on using her agency to help her husband Mitch McConnell get re-elected (she's also under investigation), but she has used her title in pro-Trump opinion pieces in prominent battleground state newspapers this fall. 18/

The Office of Management and Budget is in on it too, implementing Trump's attacks on diversity training and major city budgets.

OMB Director Russ Vought, who refused to testify before Congress, is adept at using taxpayer funds to further Trump's political feuds. 19/

That much of Trump's cabinet is under Hatch Act investigation shows how willing this historically corrupt Administration is to do his bidding, but even officials who don't consent to help Trump politically have been used by his campaign anyway, against their will. 20/

Congress has worked to stop their misconduct; I requested some of these Hatch Act investigations myself. But this administration's abuses are so widespread that it's hard to keep track of it all (hence this thread).

Trump is the most openly corrupt President in history. 21/21

*Housing and Urban Development, obviously!