The White House on Tuesday refused to get in the middle of a fight over whether Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro should be taken off Hillary Clinton’s short list as a running mate, after charges that he violated a federal law barring officials from discussing politics while at work.
“She’s getting plenty of advice from people, and I’ll let her make that decision,” press secretary Josh Earnest responded when asked if the former secretary of state should pass over Castro.
The Office of Special Counsel determined that Castro violated the Hatch Act when he discussed Clinton during an interview.
“I think one thing it does do is it exposes the hazards of bluntly answering questions that are posed by journalists — a hazard that I’m intimately familiar with,” Earnest quipped.
“Secretary Castro acknowledged the mistake that he made. He owned up to it and he’s taken the necessary steps to prevent it from happening again,” Earnest said. “I think that’s the expectation that people have when you make a mistake, particularly in a situation like this.”
Earnest inferred that the embarrassment and controversy Castro has endured is sufficient punishment.
“I’m quite confident that when he reads the transcript of the exchange that you and I are having, that it will feel like a punishment,” Earnest said.
When asked if Hatch Act violations are endemic in the Obama administration given that former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also ran afoul of it, Earnest said, “No.”
“No, I don’t think it’s a pattern at all,” he said.
