Just a few weeks ago, Americans learned that Sheriff David Clarke’s jail in Milwaukee kept water from a mentally ill inmate for days, until the man died of “profound dehydration.”Now, however, Donald Trump’s administration has decided to reward David Clarke with a promotion.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. will leave office next month to accept a federal appointment as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.He will work in the department’s Office of Partnership and Engagement as a liaison with state, local and tribal law enforcement and governments. “I’m looking forward to joining that team,” Clarke said Thursday afternoon on the Vicki McKenna talk show on 1130 WISN Radio.
Even if a bipartisan majority in the Senate were to conclude that Clarke is dangerously unhinged, and should be kept far away from any federal responsibilities, it wouldn’t matter — because as Politico recently noted, the position Clarke is taking “does not require Senate confirmation.”If you’re not familiar with Clarke, his career, or his political activism, it’s worth appreciating the fact that he’s not a typical American sheriff.Clarke has, for example, suggested keeping Americans safe by rounding up 1 million terrorist suspects, suspending habeas corpus, and detaining them indefinitely at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Clarke compared Barack Obama to Hitler. Clarke has said activists involved in the Black Lives Matter movement are terrorists who would “join forces” with ISIS.Right Wing Watch added this afternoon:
The Wisconsin sheriff became a conservative icon after making a string of wild and outlandish statements. He aligned himself with Trump and made regular appearances on Fox News, further elevating his platform.Clarke has “compared Beyonce to a Ku Klux Klan member, called for the Great Seal of the United States to feature a semi-automatic rifle, and repeatedly demanded a literal uprising against the government in protest of President Obama’s gun violence proposals, potential election rigging and marriage equality.” He once tweeted that anti-Trump protests “must be quelled.”
And now he’s going to serve as your assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. What could possibly go wrong?
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."