Apr.21

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GOP 53

Another One Bites the Dust

On March 24, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem got the boot. On April 2, then-"AG" Pam Bondi joined Noem in the unemployment line. And then there were three, because as of yesterday, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer is out. That's three in one month, which means that after a year-plus of mostly stability, we're back to Trump v1.0 levels of turnover.

Chavez-DeRemer has been enmeshed in various scandals for months, culminating in an extensive exposé in The New York Times last week. Here's the list of (known) issues:

• The Secretary was, reportedly, involved in a sexual relationship with an underling.
  
  
• She drank to excess while working, and distributed large quantities of alcohol to underlings.
  
  
• She also used staff to do personal tasks, like planning her vacations.
  
  
• Chavez-DeRemer, and several of her deputies, strongly encouraged younger, female employees to "pay attention" to older, male employees (and older, male hangers-on)
  
  
• The Secretary's husband, Shawn DeRemer, made unwanted advances to numerous female staffers, and was eventually banned from the department entirely after he was accused of "inappropriately touching" two young women.
  
  
• The Secretary's father, Richard Chavez, was in the habit of sending creepy text messages to young, female staffers. The one that is getting particular attention reads: "Hearing u/r in town. Wishing you would let me know. I could have made some excuses to get out and show u around. Please keep this private."

It is really unbelievable how many sexual predators there are in this presidential administration. Heck, it is really unbelievable how many sexual predators there are in just the Chavez-DeRemer family.

Meanwhile, there is nothing publicly known about Chavez-DeRemer today that wasn't known a week ago, or even a month ago. So, why did the axe swing now? It's certainly possible that the White House's patience ran out. Another explanation, however, is that there is something new (and bad) about to come to light. We'll soon see, one way or the other.

The fall of Chavez-DeRemer has a fair bit in common with the fall of Noem, namely that they were both engaging in problematic relationships with underlings, and they were both grossly abusing the privileges of office. Bondi, by contrast, was done in by her failure to successfully pursue Donald Trump's enemies, and her unwise public statements. However, the two things that all three of the now-former Cabinet officers have in common are: (1) All of them embarrassed the administration and (2) All of them are women. Given that male Cabinet officers outnumbered female Cabinet officers more than 2-to-1 at the start of this year, it's pretty long odds that the first three folks would just so happen to be women, without some externality coming into play (like, say, a misogynist boss).

So, who is going to be the next to go? Here's a rundown of the leading candidates:

• Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: He seems to grow more and more unhinged by the day. Last week, a lot of attention was paid to a Biblical passage he read at one of his Pentagon revival meetings, a Biblical passage that isn't actually a Biblical passage at all, and is instead (basically) Jules' speech from the movie Pulp Fiction, right before he guns down three men in cold blood. One on hand, contrary to much of the social media commentary, it's clear from the video that Hegseth knew that it wasn't actually a Bible passage. On the other hand, millions of people saw the headline "Hegseth confuses Pulp Fiction with Bible," and did not learn that is not really accurate. Also, even if Hegseth fully understood the reference, it IS a prelude to three blood-drenched murders. So, perhaps not the best choice for a quasi-religious gathering.
  
  Getting less attention, to our surprise (though we did have a letter about it this weekend) was Hegseth attacking the media members who cover his press conferences (which he is stuck with, thanks to court intervention). He slurred the Pentagon press pool as "unpatriotic" and compared them to the Pharisees. That is pretty clearly a dog whistle (more like a dog bullhorn, actually) that translates to "Damn you Jews who control the media."
  
  We actually don't think that Hegseth's ongoing, embarrassing behavior (including his alleged drinking) will bring him down. It could, since embarrassing behavior and drinking brought Chavez-DeRemer down, but we tend to doubt it. We'd say that Hegseth's REAL Achilles' heel is the Iran War. It's going badly, and it looks like it's about to turn "hot" again, and if it does, the beating the administration is taking will only get worse. Since nothing is EVER Trump's fault, someone will probably have to take the fall, and Hegseth is an excellent candidate.
  
  The Secretary does have one ace in the hole, though (and no, it's not copies of those kompromat videos that Vlad Putin supposedly has). It's that House Democrats are trying to impeach Hegseth. That might cause Trump to keep him, just to "own the libs.
  
  
• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Kennedy's presence in the Trump administration is entirely a marriage of convenience. Kennedy doesn't really care about Trumpism (and, indeed, tried to make a deal with Kamala Harris first), and Trump doesn't really care about MAHA. Is there a point at which too many children will have died from diseases that were previously under control, thanks to Kennedy's policies?
  
  There are a couple of mildly bad signs for the HHS Secretary. The first is that after churning through several CDC directors of dubious merit, the White House has just nominated Dr. Erica Schwartz, who is a Navy veteran and an actual, experienced expert in public health. In other words, she is NOT Bobby Jr.'s kind of person.
  
  Kennedy's other problem is that he is in the middle of a bunch of Congressional hearings, and they are off to a poor start. Recall that it was a poor performance at a Congressional hearing that proved to be the final straw for both Noem and Bondi.
  
  
• DNI Tulsi Gabbard: For this one, we have to read between the lines a little bit. To start, note that: (1) She could also get some of the blame for Iran, (2) She has also had a couple of bad appearances before Congress recently, and (3) She has, like Bondi, failed to punish Trump's enemies.
  
  Late last week, Gabbard made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice over the intelligence community's handling of the information used in the first Trump impeachment (the one in 2019, after he tried to blackmail Volodymyr Zelenskyy). In particular, Gabbard wants to see then intelligence community IG Michael Atkinson do some time in pokey. Or, at least, she SAYS that is what she wants to see. There is not the slightest chance of a successful prosecution here, since: (1) Atkinson did nothing criminal, and (2) the statute of limitations has run, anyhow.
  
  So, Gabbard's maneuver is clearly just a stunt for the benefit of an audience of one. And a pretty desperate stunt, at that. The kind of desperate stunt that someone in the Trump administration pulls when they fear they are in danger of getting canned, and they are running out of ideas to save themselves. Oh, and don't forget, Gabbard is a woman.
  
  
• FBI Director Kash Patel: Not actually a Cabinet officer, of course, but a high-profile member of the administration nonetheless. And another case where we have to read between the lines a little bit. To begin, let us note that, like Noem and Chavez-DeRemer, Patel has abused the spoils of office. And, like Chavez-DeRemer and Hegseth, he's gotten some unflattering coverage due to his alcohol use. That includes a lengthy story published in The Atlantic late last week, in which veteran reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick reported that Patel's colleagues at the FBI were concerned about his alcohol use and his frequent, unexplained work absences.
  
  Yesterday, Patel fired back by... suing The Atlantic for $250 million, claiming he has been defamed. This is another lawsuit that is going absolutely nowhere. First of all, the truth is an absolute defense against a libel claim, and you can bet your last dollar that Fitzpatrick had ample sources for what she reported and that she believed her reporting to be true (also note that there's a big difference between reporting "Patel abuses alcohol" and reporting "Patel's colleagues worry that he abuses alcohol"). Second, Patel would never submit to the discovery process, which would open up his life and his past alcohol use (of which there is plenty) to scrutiny.
  
  We can only think of two potential motivations for this lawsuit. The first is to try to intimidate media outlets, and to keep them from reporting critically on Patel. The second is to put on a show for the audience of one that currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a show that says, "I hate the media, too, and I'm following your lead in doing something about it." Certainly, it smacks of the same kind of "don't fire me!" desperation as the Gabbard criminal referral.

A couple of weeks ago, we asked readers to vote as to which Cabinet member would be next to go. Here's how the vote shook out:

• Gabbard—58.7%
• Hegseth—20.8%
• Chavez-DeRemer—8.9%
• Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick—5.2%
• Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins—0.8%
• Someone Else—5.6%

We also got hundreds and hundreds of comments, and we selected a few to share; notice the theme that runs through so many of them:

• It won't be Howard Lutnick. He knows too much about Epstein, so Trump has to keep him close.
  
  
• All Cabinet officials should get limber as they can with yoga stretches in order to more easily extract that eventual incoming knife in the back. This administration is gonzo and I weep for this country.
  
  
• Another woman will be replaced with a white man, since in one person's mind, women apparently aren't MAGA enough. (Notice this started happening after MTG rebelled?)
  
  
• As usual it is the women fired first. If it was based on competence, Hegseth would have been the first to go.
  
  
• At some point, I would like to see them all tried and imprisoned. Not bloody likely, though...
  
  
• Secretary of Energy Chris Wright will be among the next three fired. Gasoline prices are high, must be DoE's fault! (Don't get me wrong, he deserves to be fired, but not because of gas prices.)
  
  
• I picked Gabbard because Trump lives to scapegoat women.
  
  
• Gabbard because deep down inside Trump knows she gave him bad intel on Iran's capabilities and intentions.
  
  
• Trump hates women. He will continue to fire women ahead of white guys. Patel isn't all that safe either.
  
  
• He's sacked two women so far. So I'd say DeRemer-Chavez will follow Gabbard out the door.
  
  
• Kash Patel is not a member of the Cabinet but I don't think he'll be in his current role by Election Day.
  
  
• Kegsbreath is the biggest public embarrassment right now, but he's male.
  
  
• Kennedy must go, but Trump knows that would hurt him politically
  
  
• Trump will give the appearance of "Cleaning House" by firing 3 more in the cabinet outside of a Friday news cycle to try to prevent a terrible mid-term showing. This will fail miserably.
  
  
• Elect a clown, expect a circus.
  
  
• Fire every one of these clowns. Bring in new clowns.
  
  
• How long until Barron, Melania and other family members join the Cabinet?

There must have been close to 500 readers who wrote in with some variant of the "it's always the women" observation.

We shall see who goes next. At this rate, we'll only have to wait a week or so to find out. (Z)