Jim Geraghty of National Review Online responds to recent news about one of the Trump administration’s least reputable officials.
Anyone with even a slim majority of the five senses likely sensed that Corey Lewandowski was exceptionally bad news and you wouldn’t want to trust him with the television remote control, much less an important position in the federal government. But this morning, the Wall Street Journal gives us a sense of just how morally absymal his short term at the Department of Homeland Security was, openly selling his services to foreign governments.
When Corey Lewandowski was at the Department of Homeland Security, he approached senior Qatari officials with a proposal.
Hire me on the side, the longtime Trump aide who was effectively the shadow secretary at the department last year, told them, according to people familiar with his pitch. He said he could help the tiny, wealthy Gulf state with any issues that fell under the department’s purview, such as visas, the people said.
He approached representatives of the United Arab Emirates with a similar offer, people familiar with the outreach said.
Some of the foreigners were taken aback and confused why they would need Lewandowski’s help when they already had traditional relationships with top administration officials. Qatar and U.A.E. declined the proposals, the people said.
The alleged moneymaking efforts, which appeared to be offers by Lewandowski to sell government services for personal gain, came while he had an expansive portfolio at one of the most powerful agencies in the federal government.
Man, how bad do you have to be when even the Qataris and UAE respond, “eh, this sounds pretty shady, we’re gonna pass on this one?”
“Draining the swamp” has become a bitterly ironic slogan, as the Trump administration boasts of ending the sort of petty corruption of the Hunter Bidens of the world, and then moved on to enact its own seemingly endless varieties of corruption.
