During his tenure in office, President Trump faced incessant criticism from the media for hiring family members – including his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner – and placing friends in positions of authority within his administration.
But just as President Joe Biden has ripped off many aspects of Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and rhetoric, top officials in his administration have shown little compunction about hiring family members, despite Biden’s promise that nepotism wouldn’t be a feature of his administration.
According to a Washington Post report from Friday, during the first few months of Biden’s presidency, at least five children of his top aides have secured coveted jobs in the new administration. They include two sons and a daughter of a White House counselor, the daughter of a deputy White House chief of staff, and the daughter of Biden’s director of presidential personnel. The pattern continued this week when the Treasury Department announced that it had hired JJ Ricchetti, son of Biden counselor Steve Ricchetti.
A handful of ethics experts told WaPo that it was “disappointing” to see the Biden Administration embrace cronyism, just like most of his predecessors.
“While it may not be as bad as appointing your son or daughter to a top government post as Trump did with Jared and Ivanka, it is still bad,” said Walter Shaub, who served as director of the Office of Government Ethics from 2013-2017. “‘Not as bad as Trump’ cannot be the new standard.”
Other relatives of top Biden aides also have secured high-level administration jobs or nominations, including the wife of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and the sister of White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Federal law generally prohibits government officials from directly hiring, or encouraging the hiring, of close relatives, however there is no evidence that any of the Biden administration officials named above have directly intervened in the process, according to WaPo. The White House maintains that everyone in the administration has been well-qualified for their positions. – READ MORE
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