YIKES: Clarence Thomas’s Wife Advised Trump to Hire Dan Bongino and David Clarke For Government Posts
Conservative activists and external advisers to President Donald Trump, including Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, have been compiling lists of government officials to purge and replace with loyalists, according to new reports.
The New York Times confirmed on Tuesday an Axios report from the weekend on the memos, which suggest firings and propose hires — including controversial cable news pundits — for the administration.
Axios White House correspondent Jonathan Swan reported that these Trump allies have undertaken a comprehensive project to identify and help root out anyone within the Trump administration or federal government who is seen as insufficiently pro-Trump or a threat to undermining the president’s agenda.
“A well-connected network of conservative activists with close ties to Trump and top administration officials is quietly helping develop these ‘Never Trump’/pro-Trump lists, and some sent memos to Trump to shape his views,” Swan reported. “Members of this network include Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Republican Senate staffer Barbara Ledeen.”
Thomas holds no position in government, but is a prominent, outspoken conservative, who has a track record of aligning herself with controversial figures and making incendiary, insulting comments, including calling survivors of the Parkland school massacre who advocated for gun control “dangerous to the survival of our nation” and blasting Congressional Republicans Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan as “clueless” and “useful idiots” who are being manipulated by “LiberalFascists. [sic]” She heads up a right-wing coalition, Groundswell, which attempts to exert political influence through personal lobbying of high-profile figures.
Swan goes on to note that Groundswell and others have sent memos to the Trump White House, which has accelerated its purge of alleged Never Trump and Deep State government employees since the impeachment saga ended earlier this month.
In one of those memos, Thomas proposed Trump hire David Clarke, the former sheriff who previously lost a job in the administration after CNN reported he plagiarized a master’s thesis, and Dan Bongino, the Fox News pundit.
“The presidential personnel office reviewed Thomas’ memo and determined that some names she passed along for jobs were not appropriate candidates,” Swan reported, though Trump “may revisit some given his current mood.”
Maggie Haberman of the Times confirmed that Clarke and Bongino were pitched for government jobs, the former a homeland security post and the latter a counterterrorism one.
“Since Trump’s Senate acquittal, aides say the president has crossed a psychological line regarding what he calls the ‘Deep State,'” Swan writes, pointing specifically to the return of Trump’s former body man, John McEntee, who has been reportedly tasked with conducting a personnel purge of suspected disloyal officials. “[Trump] feels his government — from Justice to State to Defense to Homeland Security — is filled with ‘snakes.’ He wants them fired and replaced ASAP.”
