Last week, Vice President Mike Pence briefly attended an Indianapolis Colts game. The Colts played the San Francisco 49ers whose players have been known to kneel during the national anthem in order to protest police violence against people of color among other things. President Donald Trump tweeted later that day that the trip was “long planned” and that the president asked Pence to “leave the stadium if any players kneeled…”.

Pence and the second lady did end up leaving the game shortly after the anthem where he flew to Los Angeles after having come from Las Vegas the day before. In total, the Vice President racked up a $242,500 taxpayer bill to attend a game where he knew players were going to kneel and promptly leave before the first quarter. This political stunt by the Trump Administration is just one instance where taxpayer money has been used for political stunts and/or campaigning that may violate the Hatch Act.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned in late September after charging the taxpayers at least $400,000 for private chartered jets. Price has offered to reimburse the federal government only $51,877.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has also been criticized for his spending habits while in Trump’s Cabinet. While it is usual for secretaries of the interior to tour the country and visit the public lands that they oversee on behalf of the federal government, it is unusual for them to charge taxpayers thousands of dollars to ride on a private plane owned by oil and gas executives. Zinke may have also violated the Hatch Act by attending political events and fundraisers using public money.

This wouldn’t be the first time someone in the Trump Administration has violated the Hatch Act. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley violated the act by retweeting a political endorsement by President Trump. Although Haley retweeted the message from her personal account, the Office of Special Counsel decided she was acting in an official capacity.

It should be obvious by now that President Trump either has no intention of draining the swamp, or he is willfully ignorant of the events taking place within his own administration. Either way, it is time for Congress to step in and start holding the executive branch responsible.