While most of the nation has been focused on the economic and health consequences of this horrific pandemic, President Trump has been at least partly focused on purging independent inspectors general from his administration. Most recently, on Friday night when State Department Inspector General Steve Linick was shown the door.
This follows the President ousting the inspector general of the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, who had followed the law when it came to the whistleblower complaint about the President pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on the Bidens.
The President seeking a replacement for the woman who ran the office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, Christi Grimm. Grimm issued a report in March, reporting that a survey of hospitals in the US suggested widespread and severe shortages of (personal protective equipment), coronavirus testing supplies, and more.
The President pushed out acting Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine, a man with the reputation for independence who was leading oversight of $2.2 trillion for coronavirus relief but will no longer be able to serve in that role because of the President's dismissal of him.
To say nothing of course of President Trump pushing out whistleblowers, such as Dr. Rick Bright or those who offer independent voices willing to speak truth to power, Lt. Col. (Alexander)Vindman, Ambassador (Marie) Yovanovitch, and on and on and on.
In Linick's case, the inspector general of the State Department had been investigating whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been misusing a political appointee to perform personal errands, according to a Democratic congressional aide.
Inspectors general are there during Democratic and Republican administrations. They're there to protect your money and to make sure your government is operating efficiently and free of corruption. The President does not want them there and he's getting away with it. Because all of the previously outspoken voices in favor of inspectors general and their independence, such as Sen. Chuck Grassley, who for decades had stood up for whistleblowers -- all of those voices have been muted, if not outright silenced.
Late Saturday, one Republican senator, Mitt Romney of Utah, did offer a harsh rebuke, calling the move by the President a "threat to accountable democracy and a fissure in the constitutional balance of power." But Romney sadly, at least as of now, stands alone.
In short, one check on the Executive Branch, the Senate, has not only too often forsaken its oversight responsibilities, it is now allowing the President to remove another layer of oversight by purging inspectors general who are independent and who think their job is to work for you and not for him.
"He's sending a message to inspectors general," one former IG told me: "Do your job at your peril." More over, the former IG notes, "Linick is being replaced by an ambassador. Loyalty to Trump above all else."
I've been covering Washington, DC, for a long time now and one thing I've noticed is that when one party destroys a norm it seldom comes back. When the other party comes to control, which inevitably happens, that party takes advantage of the new power. They usually push it even further.
So while Republicans in Congress sit back cowardly and don't raise a peep, keep in mind this is not just about President Trump's unprecedented war on accountability, this is about the kind of nation we will have after President Trump leaves office, whether in January or 2025. It will be a world where watchdogs are replaced by lapdogs. It already is becoming that world, and that doesn't serve anyone except whoever is in power. And you will have only President Trump and the people in Congress and the media who sold you out so as to curry favor with him to blame.
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May 18, 2020 at 12:33AM
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Tapper warns Trump's firings of inspectors general create 'a world where watchdogs are replaced with lapdogs' - CNN
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