Senator Discusses Ethics Agreements

By
Rachel Stevenson
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0
980

Just days after Donald Trump’s resounding victory, the media, led by CNN, is already drumming up another “scandal”—this time because Trump hasn’t signed some bureaucratic ethics agreements regarding his transition team. Enter Sen. Elizabeth Warren, claiming (with a predictably dramatic flair) that Trump’s failure to sign these documents must be some kind of criminal act.

Let’s be real: the idea that Warren herself “wrote the law” in question is laughable; if anything, a group of staffers and lobbyists put it together while she showed up for the final photo op. But here we are, with the usual cast of media characters trying to spin a story out of what looks like an unremarkable delay in paperwork.

According to CNN, Trump hasn’t signed off on certain transition agreements with the Biden administration because of—you guessed it—concerns over ethics pledges. They’re quick to remind everyone of the ethics controversies from Trump’s last term, which largely revolved around the fact that his business was making money (as if being successful is somehow inherently unethical). Yet, for all the outrage, these so-called conflicts of interest didn’t seem to bother voters, who just sent Democrats packing with a clear message that they care more about groceries than Trump’s business.

The media wants to make it sound like Trump’s failure to sign these documents is a national crisis. Supposedly, his transition team is “behind” because it hasn’t unlocked access to these “critical” briefings from the Biden administration. But behind by whose standards? CNN’s?

It’s hilarious that they think Americans are out here losing sleep because Trump isn’t speed-walking through these bureaucratic hoops. He’s still selecting people to lead various agencies; there’s no urgent rush for these briefings yet. However, for the bureaucratic class and their media enablers, any break from tradition is seen as a threat to their control.

CNN even got a quote from Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, who warns of “severe consequences” if Trump doesn’t get his transition act together. Apparently, transition time is a “point of maximum vulnerability” for the country’s security, as if missing a few early briefings with Biden’s people is going to throw the nation into chaos. What Stier and the media don’t mention is what’s really going on here: the bureaucratic class is frustrated because they’re not yet calling the shots.

Meanwhile, Warren, CNN, and Rep. Jamie Raskin are already blowing this delay into yet another “threat to democracy.” According to Raskin, the whole “transfer of power could be threatened” if Trump doesn’t sign these forms quickly. It’s all so predictably dramatic. Since when is a peaceful, constitutionally-mandated transfer of power dependent on signing an ethics agreement? The Constitution didn’t make power transfer conditional on bureaucratic etiquette, and this won’t be the first administration to take its time with the process.

People aren’t having it:

Even the left is tired of the talk:


At the end of the day, this “ethics agreement” story is just another example of the media’s outrage machine working overtime. Trump’s team will sign the agreements in due time, and they’ll get their briefings soon enough. Until then, let Warren, CNN, and the bureaucrats stew in their frustration. Watching them scream “scandal” at every turn makes Trump’s victory even more satisfying.

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