Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said Tuesday that the State Department’s publishing of promotional information on President Donald Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club “should not have happened.”
On Monday, the State Department removed a post from from its ShareAmerica platform on the club, called “Mar-a-Lago: The winter White House.” It contained a brief history of the property and was placed alongside other promotions of, for example, Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrors” exhibit, or the singer Cécile McLorin Salvant.
The article was reposted on the U.S. Embassy in London and on the U.S. Embassy in Tirana, Albania’s Facebook page. Those posts have also been deleted.
“It shouldn’t have happened, and it ought to come down,” Blackburn told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Tuesday morning.
“There should be a statement to provide some clarity as to how that happened,” she said. “That’s the kind of thing that should not happen, and if it did get posted, take it down immediately.”
Blackburn added that there needed to be some clarification that the post was “a mistake, and it’s down.”
Spokespeople for the Bureau of International Information Programs, of which ShareAmerica is a part, and the U.S. Embassy in London did not return TPM’s requests for comment Monday.
ShareAmerica posted a brief statement on the the article’s original page:
The intention of the article was to inform the public about where the president has been hosting world leaders. We regret any misperception and have removed the post.
Democrats on Capitol Hill complained about the post Monday, calling it “kleptocratic” among other things. Norman Eisen, of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, claimed that it violated a law against using public office for private gains.
Of those and other criticisms, Blackburn said simply: “I think what you have to look at is the compliance that the government ethics office requires.”
Watch below via CNN:
Republican @MarshaBlackburn on Mara Lago promo on govt website: “Shouldn’t have happened and it ought to come down” https://t.co/vRMRYDkYva
— New Day (@NewDay) April 25, 2017
H/t The Hill
Of course she doesn’t bother to mention all the other violations of ethics standards and the Emoluments Clause that Trump & Co. have repeatedly broken. Party over country, again Marsha.
Gotta love that passive construction.
Just kidding, no you don’t. It’s fucking gross. Worse when it comes from the party of personal responsibility.
I didn’t think the loopy dingbat was capable of criticizing Trump
Having watched CNN this morning, I noted, unlike the image with this post, Marsha’s finally learned never to raise her aged, reptilian hands up near her high-dollar facework while on camera.
LET. ME. REITERATE. If you’re not going to take substantive steps to punish abuse of office and prevent it from happening again, don’t bother with the “ain’t it a shame” line.