US President Donald Trump fired State Department Inspector general Steve Linick on Friday, stating in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he no longer had “the fullest confidence” in Linick’s ability to serve in the position. The firing will take effect in 30 days unless members of Congress intervene to pressure or convince the President to reverse course.
The move is the latest in a series of dismissals of independent government officials that have come in the wake of Donald Trump’s acquittal on articles of impeachment earlier this year. He has shown increased hostility to any scrutiny from within the government, often targeting officials from the previous administration he considers to be a part of the so-called “deep-state”, which he strongly believes is aligned against him.
Linick, who was first appointed as Inspector General by former President Barack Obama, had handed over documents detailing Rudy Giuliani’s contacts with Ukrainian prosecutors during the impeachment trial. In doing so, he broke ranks with State Department leadership, who vowed not to cooperate with the investigation. In a 2019 report, Linick had also outlined allegations that senior State Department officials harassed staffers who were thought to be disloyal to the Trump administration. More recently, Linick was conducting an investigation into the alleged improper use of a political appointee by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Linick’s dismissal drew immediate criticism from Democrats, who have repeatedly accused the President of engaging in a pattern of retaliation against public servants in the midst of a pandemic. However, Trump has not restricted his attacks to only those charged with internal oversight. In fact, he has expressed severe dissatisfaction against any government employees whom he perceives as having criticized him, or having refused to carry out his orders. Just last week, Trump took issue with his top public health expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, after the doctor warned about lifting restrictions too soon at a Senate hearing. The President accused Fauci of wanting “to play all sides of the equation” and said that schools remaining closed for a prolonged period was “unacceptable”.
The United States has become the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 1.5 million confirmed cases and almost 90,000 deaths. Critics have accused the administration of exacerbating the situation by not only dismissing the threat of the outbreak in the crucial early weeks, but also failing to acknowledge the shortcomings of its response in the country and seeking ways to defect blame for the spread of the virus.
The government, however, continues to reject the charge that it has failed its people. Despite mounting concerns about the safety of the population, Trump has escalated his push to reopen the economy, stating on Friday that “vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back”.
Image Source: The Guardian