FEMA administrator Brock Long defended his reportedly excessive use of taxpayer-funded vehicles, drivers, and hotel rooms for staffers on Sunday, in the face of an inspector’s general investigation into allegations he abused his access to those resources on frequent trips from Washington, D.C. to his home in North Carolina.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, that the Trump administration had considered replacing Long in the run-up to Hurricane Florence’s recent landfall. On Sunday, Long denied Politico’s reporting that DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had once asked him to consider resigning. Long acknowledged, though: “It’s my understanding that maybe some policies were not developed around these vehicles that we will get cleared up and push forward.”
Brock Long on gov't vehicle use: "It's my understanding that maybe some policies were not developed around these vehicles that we will get cleared up and push forward." pic.twitter.com/lJvLzbPcOl
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 16, 2018
so this means he can’t rise to the “heck of a job” level?
I still don’t entirely understand why he’s going home all the time with this caravan of vehicles filled with staffers who stay in hotels. I’m not entirely ready to accept that vague word-cloud about how since forever they maintain the continuity of government by having staffers ordering room service while the director chills at home, or why we’re hearing that his boss suggested resignation as an option in light of this utterly normal practice, or why this supposedly normal and time-honored practice suddenly needs new policies governing it, and, well, any of it. I. Am. Tired. Of. This.
ETA Ok just read the WSJ piece. It seems he’s well liked at FEMA and has a creditable history in the field. Also some of the funky travel was, in fact, based on standard practices. It may be a thing where the general laxity of the administration made him figure he could push the envelope, the way people do when nobody seems to care about ethics and rules, and he discovered where the line was because they told him he was over it. Dunno but it does happen.
Confederacy of Grifters
So I guess he’s saying he needs actual policies to specifically tell him what’s appropriate because his moral compass is irretrievably broken?
The way Trump’s appointees have behaved would be grossly inappropriate in the private sector and even more so in government. No wonder they can’t find a job after leaving this Administration. Who would want such rampantly corrupt and incompetent buffoons?