Marco Rubio Demands Federal Employees Who Call for "Ceasefire" in Israel-Gaza conflict To be Investigated for 'Insubordination' and publicly identified.

[CoffeeTiger 5,180]

Nothing to see here, just another Republican politician from the "Free State of Florida" Demanding political retribution and investigations into  people who merely expressed thoughts and opinions that Rubio didn't like, so he accuses them of various crimes and wrongdoing (with 0 supporting evidence), and demands they be publicly named, shamed, fired, and possible charged. 

Very American. Much Freedom. Totally not authoritarian. Way to go Rubio. 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/07/federal-employees-gaza-ceasefire-rubio-letters/

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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) fed the intimidation last week with letters to federal offices demanding investigations into more than 500 employees he accused of insubordination because they called for a cease-fire in an open letter previously reported by the New York Times.

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OSC issued a clear and definitive advisory opinion last week. The agency enforces the Hatch Act, which defines what activity political activity is allowed and prohibited for federal employees. Specifically, “speaking about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas is not political activity,” OSC’s guidance says, unless that activity is tied to domestic electoral support or action. “And even if the speech is political activity, the Hatch Act only prohibits employees from engaging in that speech while on duty or in the federal workplace.”

 

Noting that President Biden has not called for a cease-fire, Rubio laid serious accusations against the employees. With no supporting evidence, he said “the letter indicates the possibility of open insubordination and misuse of taxpayer provided resources by federal employees attempting to use their roles within the federal government to actively work against policies supported by Congress, the President, and the American people.”

 

Writing to inspectors general and other officials in about two dozen agencies, Rubio said supporting a cease-fire “only stands to benefit Hamas.” He characterized the signers as “disgruntled staffers hiding in anonymity as they advocate for policies aimed at assisting Hamas.” The feds behind the open letter are anonymous, so Rubio can’t know their motivations, and he offered nothing to back his assertions that they are “disgruntled” or Hamas supporters.

Rubio’s comments drew pushback from a federal labor leader, Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, who said with the senator’s “extreme response to the open letter, federal workers clearly have good cause to be concerned. This kind of rhetoric toward federal workers from a sitting United States senator certainly won’t help to alleviate their concerns.”

If favoring a cease-fire means people are disgruntled Hamas supporters, then that applies to almost two-thirds of the American public. A Nov. 29 Economist/YouGov poll indicates 65 percent of U.S. adult citizens favor a cease-fire, including 58 percent of Republicans. That strong cease-fire support is driven daily by gruesome pictures of devastation, death and destruction by Israel in Gaza, where at least 17,177 people have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. That’s more than 10 times the 1,200 killed during the shocking Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, sparking the latest round in a decades-long battle.

He called for the inspectors general to conduct a full investigation into the open letter and publicize the names of those who backed it. Rubio’s office did not respond to questions in two requests for comment.

In his letter to Karen Gorman, acting special counsel in the OSC, Rubio made other unsupported statements, including that employees might have “coordinated … with partisan political actors and/or groups, such as the DNC (Democratic National Committee), while on government time, using government resources.”

 

This is a “reasonable” suspicion, Rubio wrote, because of “the known connections between administration staff and the president’s political allies,” as if those connections are suspicious. There always are connections between staff and the president’s political appointees because they work together every day. Rubio said the feds “could have coordinated the letter with partisan political actors … while on government time, using government resources,” with nothing to support that statement.

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by CoffeeTiger

[AU9377 5,043]

Good Lord.  There is no need to go off the deep end Marco.  As most of you know, I support Israel fully, but calling for someone that disagrees to be investigated is about as un American as it gets.