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| Adam Schiff, with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press (NBC) |
Thank goodness members of Congress are familiar with the law because President Donald Trump has made it clear he does not have a clue. The latest example that Trump simply does not know how to govern came when he unilaterally fired 18 independent watchdogs -- known as inspectors general (IGs) -- who are charged with preventing and rooting out fraud, malfeasance, grift, and other forms of corruption in the government.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is one member of Congress who understands how IGs are supposed to be appointed and operate. And Schiff made it clear that Trump, as often is his wont, did not come close to acting within the law. Politico describes how Trump went wildly off the rails, and Schiff was among those paying attention, calling out the president for the very kind of crookedness IGs are charged with detecting and preventing.
Politico provides the play-by-play that describes the latest reason Trump is a threat to our democracy. To put it bluntly, Trump is not smart enough to be president, partly because he does not give one whit about governing. Imagine how badly he would screw stuff up if he did try to govern.
Under the headline "Adam Schiff: Trump ‘broke the law’ in firing inspectors general; 'The American people, if we don’t have good and independent inspectors general, are going to see the swamp refill,' Schiff said," Digital Producer/Breaking News Reporter Liset Cruz reports:
California Sen. Adam Schiff said President Donald Trump “broke the law” in firing 18 independent federal watchdogs, known as inspectors general, on Friday night.
“Yeah, he broke the law. Not just any law, but a law meant to crowd out waste, fraud and abuse and, yeah, the remedies congress has,” the Democrat said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have the power of the purse, we have the power right now to confirm or not confirm people for Cabinet positions that control agencies or would control agencies whose inspectors generals have just been fired.”
This episode raises an obvious question: Why did Trump unlawfully fire individuals who are dedicated to eliminating corruption? Is it because Trump intends to act corruptly, and he wants to reduce the chances of getting caught? That's the only reason I can think of at the moment. A number of news outlets reported that the move was driven by Trump's desire to address "changing priorities." Does that sound like a BS answer to you? It does to me. Trump even said he did it "because it's a very common thing to do." Presidents breaking the law is a common thing to do? Makes you wonder how Trump views the presidency. Cruz reports:
Federal law requires a 30-day notification to Congress before any watchdogs can be removed, which the president did not do.
“The American people, if we don’t have good and independent inspector generals, are going to see the swamp refill,” Schiff said. “They’re going to see rampant waste fraud. They’re going to see corruption. It may be the president’s goal here, when he’s got a meme coin that’s making him billions, is to remove anyone that’s going to call public attention to his malfeasance.”
The fired inspectors general included those for the departments of State, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Energy, Labor and Defense, as well as the Small Business Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham also appeared on “Meet the Press” and was asked if he thought Trump violated the law.
“Technically, yeah, but he has the authority to do it,” Graham (R-S.C.) said. (That is a lie.)
On CNN, Graham also defended Trump’s actions.
“He won the election. What do you expect him to do, just leave everybody in place in Washington before he got elected?” Graham said.
That's the kind of nonsense for which Lindsey Graham is known -- a pitiful example of what passes for discourse in the postmodern Republican Party. Trump broke the law, technically and in every other way, but Graham is trying to con the American people into believing otherwise. From the Politico report:
Trump’s moves remove a significant layer of accountability as he asserts control over the federal government in his second term. But this isn’t the first time Trump has fired any inspectors general.
During his first term, he fired the intelligence community’s chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, who notified Congress about an “urgent” complaint he received from an intelligence official involving Trump’s communications with Ukraine’s president. This complaint later led to Trump’s first impeachment.
He also fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick in May 2020 after Linick sought to interview then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about his role in an “emergency” arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
When asked whether he planned to install loyalists in those positions, Trump said that he didn’t “know anybody that would do that.”
“We’ll put people in there that will be very good,” he told reporters Saturday evening.
Trump didn't "know anybody that would do that"? Try looking in the mirror, bub -- maybe the one in Elon Musk's office.
Here are more insights from a report at NBC News and Yahoo! News:
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Sunday blasted President Donald Trump for his decision to fire 18 inspectors general late Friday night and accused the president of breaking the law.
“To write off this clear violation of law by saying, ‘Well,’ that ‘technically, he broke law.’ Yeah, he broke the law,” Schiff told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Schiff's comment was responding to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who earlier in the program told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that “technically, yeah,” Trump had violated the Inspector General Act, which Congress amended to strengthen protections from undue termination for inspectors general.
“I’m not, you know, losing a whole lot of sleep that he wants to change the personnel out. I just want to make sure that he gets off to a good start,” Graham added.
In a later interview on CNN, Graham defended Trump more forcefully, saying, “Yes, I think he should have done that.”(So Graham supports clear violations of law. That's comforting.)
“He feels like the government hasn’t worked very well for the American people. These watchdog folks did a pretty lousy job. He wants some new eyes on Washington. And that makes sense to me,” he added.
But Schiff pushed back on that notion, warning that “if we don’t have good and independent inspector generals, we are going to see a swamp refill.”
He added, “It may be the president’s goal here ... to remove anyone that’s going to call public attention to his malfeasance.”
Schiff nailed it with that comment. Lindsey Graham might not stand for anything. But Adam Schiff is one who takes the law seriously, and he is not likely to let anyone pull the wool over his eyes on this issue:
On Saturday, multiple lawmakers — on both sides of the aisle — pointed out that Trump’s move appeared to violate the law, which requires presidents to give Congress a 30-day notice and substantive reasoning for the firing before an inspector general is removed from their post.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told NBC News in a statement Saturday that he’d “like further explanation from President Trump” about his justification for the firings.
“There may be good reason the IGs were fired. We need to know that if so. I’d like further explanation from President Trump. Regardless, the 30-day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not provided to Congress,” Grassley said.
And Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, slammed Trump’s decision in a speech on the Senate floor Saturday morning.
“Yesterday, in the dark of night, President Trump fired at least 12 independent inspector generals at important federal agencies across the administration. This is a chilling purge,” Schumer said.
It’s not clear how Congress can address this apparent violation of the law, but on Sunday, Schiff said, “We have the power of the purse. We have the power right now to confirm or not confirm people for Cabinet positions that control agencies or would control agencies whose inspector generals have just been fired.”
So far, all but one of Trump’s Cabinet appointments have sailed through the Senate with the full backing of the Senate GOP caucus, which holds a 53-47 majority in that chamber. Just one nominee — new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — lost three GOP votes in his final confirmation vote, though he won a majority with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance.
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