Trump catches bipartisan heat for watchdog firings

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Saturday criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to fire more than a dozen inspectors general from various federal agencies. The Washington Post on Saturday was the first to report on the firings. Trump told reporters in a press briefing on Air Force One that Saturday the firings were common procedure, and many of the inspectors general were not doing their jobs. He promised that he would replace them with good people.

Nonetheless, Schumer claimed that the firings signaled impending government corruption and abuses. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the firings were illegal and accused Trump of trying to avoid any oversight of his executive branch.

Why would this be illegal? Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a comment provided to WORLD that federal law required the president to notify Congress 30 days before he fired any inspectors general. There might be a very good reason the inspectors general were fired, Grassley said, adding that he hoped that was the case and that Trump would explain his reasoning. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also told CNN in an interview over the weekend that while he supported Trump removing the inspectors general, the president should have notified Congress ahead of time.

Dig deeper: Read Jordan J. Ballor’s column about Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency and its objective of removing government waste.