Trump official resigns amid accusations of harassment/discrimination, brought horsewhip to work to intimidate workers.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://washingtonporess.com/2019/06/25 ... llegations

Just days before President Trump is set to join the G-20 summit of international leaders in Osaka, Japan, his administration’s chief of protocol, Sean Lawler, has suddenly and unexpectedly resigned.

The protocol chief normally performs a vital function on any overseas diplomatic excursion by a sitting president, smoothing over diplomatic issues and ensuring that the niceties of protocol are scrupulously followed. The position has the same diplomatic rank as an ambassador and is subject to Senate confirmation.

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Given President Trump’s proclivity to ignore the conventions of international relations and upend America’s traditional alliances in order to cozy up to authoritarian foreign dictators, the resignation means that the administration will be making a last minute substitution for someone to scurry after the president —much in the manner of the person who cleans up after the elephant passes by at the circus — to try to manage diplomatic damage control.

Assistant chief of protocol, Mary-Kate Fisher, was assigned the sweeping up duties and will attend the summit in Lawler’s place.

Lawler’s unexpected departure comes as an investigation into accusations of discrimination and harassment was being contemplated by the State Department’s Inspector General, according to a report from Bloomberg News. That same report alleges that Lawler intimidated staff, including by carrying a whip in the office.

According to Bloomberg News, neither the State Department nor the White House would respond to their request for comment on the news. Neither did Lawler himself, who after nearly three decades in government service, was a familiar fixture at the White House during visits by foreign dignitaries and acted as the president’s liaison to the State Department’s diplomatic corps.

While Trump appointed Lawler to the Chief of Protocol position, sources told Bloomberg News that the president was not especially fond of his diplomatic smoother, saying that the president “repeatedly asked why he still worked at the White House,”

The incongruity of the nation’s top expert on diplomatic protocol brandishing a whip in the office to intimidate his employees suggests that this was yet another Trump nominee who was woefully unqualified for his job, no matter how many years he may have spent in diplomatic service.

It also further demonstrates that few lessons were learned from the sub-par vetting that the Trump administration performed on its initial crop of senior appointees, as revealed this weekend by Axios.

Condolences to the G-20 attendees who will have to face an American president with even less of an ability to follow diplomatic protocol than ever before. At least now he has a whipping good excuse.

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Original reporting by Jennifer Jacobs and Daniel Flatley at Bloomberg News.

Jesus Christ.

[The Romulan Republic]

A working link: https://washingtonpress.com/2019/06/25/ ... legations/

[LaCroix]

How comes that when any accusations arise, everybody just resigns, and then seemingly never faces any consequences for the things they did? Like the EPA guy wastefully spending, etc. Why isn't he facing charges for embezzelment/larceny/fraud for his spending habits, and others for him accepting bribes like the 50$ rent appartment from the lobbyists, etc?

[Tribble]

How comes that when any accusations arise, everybody just resigns, and then seemingly never faces any consequences for the things they did? Like the EPA guy wastefully spending, etc. Why isn't he facing charges for embezzelment/larceny/fraud for his spending habits, and others for him accepting bribes like the 50$ rent appartment from the lobbyists, etc?

You believe that anybody in power actually cares about what these people do apart from the potential PR impact? That’s cute.

IMO it’s pretty straightforward- they don’t want to set a precedent which might later be used against them. If they go after guys like this, one day someone may go after them for their transgressions. Better for everyone if people just resign and it gets swept under the rug.

[LaCroix]

You believe that anybody in power actually cares about what these people do apart from the potential PR impact? That’s cute.

Living in a functioning democracy made me expect things to work like that.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Oh, sweet summer child, wherever did you get the silly notion that American democracy is "functioning"?

[Broomstick]

The state level of democracy is more or less functional these days (thank God, otherwise the place would entirely grind to a halt) but the Federal level has been a clusterfuck for a number of years now.

[The Romulan Republic]

The state level of democracy is more or less functional these days (thank God, otherwise the place would entirely grind to a halt) but the Federal level has been a clusterfuck for a number of years now.

Pretty much since a black man dared to win the Presidency instead of "knowing his place". It started even before then, actually, with the Gingrich House, and it probably would have ended in the same place eventually (the Republican party has been on this path since at least Nixon and the Southern strategy), but it massively accelerated when Obama ran.

[LaCroix]

Oh, sweet summer child, wherever did you get the silly notion that American democracy is "functioning"?

I didn't. That's why most non-US people shake their head in disbelief when we hear the US being referred as "Bastion of Democracy", "greatest country on earth" or any other US exceptionalism slogan.

It's just days like that when we are surprised about how much more fucked than we already knew up the USA actually is.