Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it was typical of the Trump administration to announce the “unsavory” firing of the State Department inspector general (IG) on Friday evening.
“This is new to us and typical of the White House, announcing something that is very unsavory, they would do to it late on a Friday night,” Pelosi said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Asked to clarify, Pelosi said it is “unsavory when you take out someone who is there to … stop waste, fraud, abuse or other violations of the law.”
“The president has the right to fire any federal employee, but the fact is if it looks like it’s in retaliation for something the IG is doing, that could be unlawful,” she said.
President Trump fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick on Friday night, making him the fourth inspector general ousted by the Trump administration in the past six weeks.
“As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as President, have the power of appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspector General. That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General,” Trump wrote in a letter to congressional leaders.
Pelosi said that although Trump did not give a clear reason for the ouster, she trusts House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who said he learned the inspector general had opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“I trust the world of my chairman. Again, I just passed a big bill,” she said, seemingly referring to the Democrats’ coronavirus relief bill the House passed Friday. “I only got this letter from the president that night, but he didn’t say in his letter any reason except that he lost confidence.
“Well, he’s lost confidence in another IG because they had been investigating or looking, have reason to believe that something should be investigated that he is doing. I really do think that presidents should not have the ability to undo investigations into their own actions,” she added.