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dmcnaughton1 t1_j8exbqm wrote

I'm confused as to how Biden is able to fire this guy. I thought the Architect of the Capitol is a legislative branch agency, not an executive branch one.

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dmcnaughton1 t1_j8eykcp wrote

Ah, that makes sense. If nominated by the President then they can be fired at will. SCOTUS opinion on that dates back to Andrew Jackson. No way to legislatively protect a presidential appointment from being fired.

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Bellerophonix t1_j8ezg6j wrote

Someone explain to me why people are mad this guy wasn't around during Jan 6? Like, what is his role exactly that he was supposed to be helpful with that?

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Huli_Blue_Eyes t1_j8ezm32 wrote

So, he knew about the J6 planning. Because he helped.

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TimeRemove t1_j8ezv1e wrote

Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is a federal agency. The Architect of the Capitol (federal agency) has an appointee (10-year term) also, confusingly, called the Architect of the Capitol. It has around 2.5K federal employees and an almost $1B budget.

So it being both a federal agency and also a presidential appointee, means the President has a lot of power. In this case congress essentially told Biden to replace him (bipartisan), and he did. Likely won't be controversial.

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VegasKL t1_j8f1qxy wrote

Odd, I figured the architect died a hundred something years ago. A little late to fire him.

/s

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CantConfirmOrDeny t1_j8f2yth wrote

So why can't Biden just fire the goddam Postmaster General then?

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kstinfo t1_j8f3v47 wrote

Bipartisan? Wow! How'd that happen?

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GongTzu t1_j8fb565 wrote

It’s no shame to go, when you are kicked out.

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macross1984 t1_j8fc4ch wrote

One more idiot who failed to do his job is out.

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asdaaaaaaaa t1_j8fe5l0 wrote

> The Architect of the Capitol (federal agency) has an appointee (10-year term) also, confusingly, called the Architect of the Capitol.

I expect absolutely nothing less in the form of confusing bullshit from our government.

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jpipersson t1_j8fetcz wrote

Everyone was just happy they found someone who both Republicans and Democrats could jump on. I guess that's bipartisanship. Everybody loves a good scapegoat.

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kingtz t1_j8ffkgg wrote

>The federal watchdog also accused Blanton, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, of ethics violations over an offer to provide tours to “patriots” weeks before the November 2020 election.

This seriously needs to be looked at a lot deeper...check his phone logs, text messages, emails, check for his fingerprints on those pipe bombs, etc.

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JennJayBee t1_j8ffnro wrote

Someone already answered, but I want to add that there were bipartisan calls from Congress for his removal, and that includes McCarthy. So even if it wasn't a presidential appointment, I'm sure Congress likely would have done the same here.

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ohimjustakid t1_j8fhxea wrote

CSPAN recently did a podcast episode on this guy

> Mr Blanton sometimes let his wife and daughter use the (work) vehicle when he was not present; He took the vehicle on roadtrips as far south as SC and Florida; He also allegedly misrepresented himself as a LEO in an incident where a driver hit the car of his daughter's boyfriend - chased that driver and briefly detained him; Allegedly led tours with his Wife of the capitol building during COVID shutdowns.

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gmb92 t1_j8fitmn wrote

"The federal watchdog also accused Blanton, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, of ethics violations over an offer to provide tours to “patriots” weeks before the November 2020 election."

Somehow don't think the calls for his resignation would have any serious bipartisan element if 45 was still president. He wouldn't have been fired.

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Pick_Zoidberg t1_j8fldj1 wrote

Everyone knew J6 was going to be a thing. It had a weeks of media coverage and all kinds of public groups.

I think the only people who were shocked by the turnout were the ones responsible for containing the turnout.

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youngmoneymarvin t1_j8flyeo wrote

It wasn’t so much that he wanted to provide tours to ‘patriots’ but his agency had just implemented a policy barring employees from bringing non-employees into the building for tours.

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Payinchange t1_j8fm4rk wrote

Sounds like they tossed another traitor out?

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cosmernaut420 t1_j8fn8ms wrote

And ole Kev's butthole puckered up real tight because up until that moment, he didn't actually believe there were others in the government in cahoots with the nutbags who wanted to execute him on the lawn.

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cosmernaut420 t1_j8fnpjt wrote

>pretends to be a cop and illegally detain some rando who hit your daughter's boyfriend's car

Everything you need to know about this person. Total fucking sociopath power tripping on his own bureaucratic farts.

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hegotthedream t1_j8fp2cw wrote

I can't believe there are people who were serving under trump still working in any aspect of any job that Biden can fire outright

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WeaselTeamSix t1_j8fpn2p wrote

Anyone appointed by Trump is likely bent and corrupt.

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johnjohn4011 t1_j8fqshn wrote

Lol ok - was that statement incorrect? Just pointing out that there are those that will never be publicly happy with any decision made by any Democrat no matter what - except to gloat over their supposed mistakes. Such people thrive on controversy and would not know what to do without it.

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Memd0 t1_j8fseot wrote

Nominated by the president. He can fire Thomas , barrett etc?

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UofMtigers2014 t1_j8fywv4 wrote

There were TONS of people in Washington who worked in government jobs that served multiple administrations. It was actually Trump who broke the mold and him and his cronies went on massive firing spree's to basically rid departments of any liberal minded people.

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dmcnaughton1 t1_j8g4tor wrote

Yes, but nominally he's directly accountable to the President as he's a presidential appointee to a legislatively created position. Congress could impeach him, and the courts could enjoin him, but only the president can fire him.

Edit: clarified it's a legislatively created position. Constitutional positions, such as Federal Judges, are presidential appointments, but are not directly accountable to the President and are only answerable to Congress.

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Mumof3gbb t1_j8g6fgz wrote

Yup! I’m Canadian and I was watching a YouTuber who was from Washington and I remember early December being worried about her. We knew. Anyone who says they didn’t is either living under a rock or lying.

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UofMtigers2014 t1_j8gbo92 wrote

You’re literally making stuff up. Holder left AG before Trump was even elected back in 2015 and was replaced by Loretta Lynch. Then Yates served as interim AG while the Senate confirmed Jeff Sessions.

Yates was then fired before Sessions was confirmed because she wouldn’t sign off on Trump’s travel ban from Arab countries. That was like a week into his Presidency.

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excitedburrit0 t1_j8gcvxy wrote

In all of my 4 years lived under the Trump presidency, never once did I turn on the livestream to see a rally of his. But that morning I did. Had to tune in for Copefest 2021. Everyone who was paying attention to the post election news *knew* something was in the air.

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UpbeatCloseness78 t1_j8ge3r1 wrote

There are a lot of tRump appointees that are still in government jobs. As far as I am concerned all of them need to go

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Suspicious_Bicycle t1_j8gknz6 wrote

Is this the guy that allowed McCarthy to squat in the speakers office for a week before he was actually elected to the speakership?

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Kahzootoh t1_j8gp1xq wrote

It’s kind of infuriating watching the members of Congress be so indignant that the Architect was not sharing their own peril by being at the Capitol during the unrest, when many of them do a similar thing to the American people by distancing themselves against the dangerous levels of confusion and anger in society they help create with their governance.

When Covid hit, the biggest threat to many of them was that their cocktail parties at expensive DC bars and restaurants were a health risk. While the rest of Americans were struggling with layoffs, reduced orders/demand, the isolation from friends and family, and the dangers of Covid- the biggest challenge for most of Congress was figuring out how to have lunch at exclusive restaurants without the press finding out and exposing them as hypocrites.

When they got a briefing on how bad Covid could be, what was the first thing they did? They adjusted their stock portfolios to profit off of the pandemic, and advised their biggest donors with stock tips. The second thing they did was start putting out dueling press conferences to publicly bicker with each other in front of the media, and drive up the polarization and public fear over Covid. Assistance to the American people took much longer to materialize, and only came after Congress and their rich donors were already in position to profit from the crisis.

Members of Congress don’t have to live on a typical income, they don’t have to pay medical bills, they don’t live among the same neighborhoods as the average American. They don’t experience normal life, they don’t suffer the consequences for their part in creating a dangerous society by the laws they pass and the laws they fail to pass. They’re collectively like a chef that refuses to eat his own cooking, but whose cooking is the only food available to the entire nation.

With such habits of evading responsibility for one’s own actions ingrained in all of the elites, is it really surprising that the Architect didn’t expose himself to the same peril as Congress that he had a hand in creating?

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johnny5semperfi t1_j8gthkk wrote

Yeah this guy definitely ran a contraband pipeline for the Mob.

/He then served as Deputy Vice President for Engineering at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority which operates the Reagan National and Dulles International Airports.[5]\

Fixes tie I do import export

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Professional-Can1385 t1_j8gxpmn wrote

Washington used to be run this way. The president could fire everyone and put his folks in positions. That’s how you lose all the institutional knowledge a place has. If everyone at the FDA is replaced by new people, then everyone has to be trained and new drugs aren’t approved, food plants aren’t inspected. It’s a nightmare and bad for the country.

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KingGidorah t1_j8gz1vq wrote

Can anyone explain to me how, after more than 2 years on, anyone appointed by Trump is still in place? WTF are they doing up there? You’d think they’d have a team dedicated to identifying these douches ffs

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KingGidorah t1_j8gzavr wrote

Don’t forget about the Postmaster General while you’re at it, Joe…

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jardex22 t1_j8h0xxo wrote

Even other organizations were specifically telling their members to not go out to counter protest. They knew shit was going to happen, and they would be blamed as the cause if they were there.

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Jessica65Perth t1_j8h53uw wrote

So he should be fired, only politicions can abuse public funds the wsy he did. How dare he

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Jessica65Perth t1_j8h5a2j wrote

I live in Perth Australia and woke up in the middle of the night to watch expecting it, based on what Trump had been saying and comments on Social media by his cultists. I expected to see a strong Police presence

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punkfunkymonkey t1_j8h6v33 wrote

Did this joker have anything to do with the panic alarms being disconnected?

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Xardrix t1_j8ha4iy wrote

>He also allegedly misrepresented himself as a LEO in an incident where a driver hit the car of his daughter's boyfriend - chased that driver and briefly detained him

I don't know about other states, but in Georgia law books that's two felonies.

  1. 16-10-23 Impersonating a Public Officer or Employee
  2. 51-7-20 False Imprisonment

Forget fired, this guy needs to be investigated for multiple felonies.

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whoelsehatesthisshit t1_j8hcaoh wrote

Inauguration marks beginning of new administration. It takes place ~Jan 20 following the election, so Nov 2016 election = Jan 2017 Trump. The time between the election and inauguration is for peaceful transfer of power.*

*Until recently

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Zounii t1_j8hkbs4 wrote

Architect of the Capitol?

Dude must be old as heck by now.

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Techutante t1_j8hpehh wrote

Aww, now you have to pay him unemployment!

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nordic-nomad t1_j8huf2h wrote

Yeah us news is weird. On an average day you’re liable to be less informed about what’s going on watching the news than people who don’t.

But if something major is happening then it all kind of makes sense and you know more than people that are actually there about what’s happening and every angle of why and what could happen next. It’s a bizarre dichotomy.

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bubbafatok t1_j8i6qwa wrote

I mean, you're not exactly treading new ground here. There's an old joke (very very old) about a president predicting that if he walked on water the news reports would exclaim "President Can't Swim". Going back my entire life, which is back to the 70's, I can't think of a president would could do blow their nose without someone on the opposition side attacking them for it.

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Most_Ruin_3005 t1_j8i7bxn wrote

You should await further coup attempts, because they're coming. Fascism is a cancer that, unless stamped out, will fester and hollow out all that it touches. We still haven't made moves against the fascists that coordinated the first coup, so it's all but guaranteed that there'll be a second.

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FapMeNot_Alt t1_j8ifv4e wrote

It's how they refer to the Office of Inspector General instead of repeating themselves.

>In the fall, an inspector general report accused Blanton of abuse of government property and wasting taxpayer dollars by allowing his family to drive a government-owned vehicle and taking the vehicle on out-of-town trips to South Carolina and Florida, according to the report. The federal watchdog also accused Blanton, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, of ethics violations over an offer to provide tours to “patriots” weeks before the November 2020 election.

On top of providing clarity in the sense that it somewhat explains what the inspector general does, restating like this can help keep readers from becoming disengaged due to repetitious writing. The issue here is that the headline buries the lede and tries to drum up minor controversy.

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Laffingglassop t1_j8j18gm wrote

That is so far off base. Nowhere has anyone said shit about a person being hit by a car until you. A car was hit by a car. And this was never about "people"in general.

But yeah sure bud im a horrible person , so whats it to you.

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kingtz t1_j8j5aj3 wrote

I agree. Not to mention that if it wasn't a high profile right winger, anybody else would be cuffed and in jail already. It really galls me that they get treated with kid gloves and given every benefit of the doubt.

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dofffman t1_j8j926q wrote

I don't get it. Why would he fire the guy that laid out how washington DC federal buildings and made blueprints for them. I honestly did not think he was still alive much less working.

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isisishtar t1_j949qny wrote

Is that tRump appointee still head of the Post Office? I think he needs to go too.

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