Senate Republicans find themselves in a familiar place: steamrolled by President Donald Trump’s purge of government watchdogs and offering little indication of how they plan to stop him.
Some GOP senators offered tacit rebukes on Monday after the president fired the State Department’s inspector general late on a Friday night without providing a clear explanation for his decision, as required by law. Those lawmakers did the same last month when Trump sacked the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson — again, late on a Friday night.
And both times, their pleas have been ineffective. The president has defied Senate Republicans without hesitation, continuing to fire and reassign inspectors general whom he feels are insufficiently loyal to him without engendering blowback from his party. It’s a dynamic that reflects both Trump’s hold on the GOP and the limits of Congress’ broader ability to rein in a president.
Several Senate Republicans reiterated Monday that the president is required by law to elaborate on his decision to fire Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general. They said they would wait for his response to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has sent letters to Trump demanding more detailed explanations of his firings of Atkinson and Linick. When he fired the two, Trump said in his official notification letters he had lost confidence in both men.
“It’s very clear that the president has to provide a justification 30 days prior to the removal of an inspector general,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who co-wrote the 2008 law requiring notification to Congress ahead of an inspector general’s removal. “It is not a sufficient justification to say he simply lost confidence. As the co-author of that law, I know that is not what we intended. We intended a more fulsome explanation.”
But Trump unequivocally defended his most recent move — further underscoring that GOP senators’ warnings aren’t having an effect.
“It happens to be very political whether you like it or not. And many of these people were Obama appointments. So I just got rid of him,” the president said.
Trump’s decision to fire Linick without complying with the 2008 law is the latest example of the president’s concerted campaign against high-level administration officials in the aftermath of his acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial, with a particular focus on those who played a role in his impeachment.
Several Republican senators who faulted Trump for his conduct toward Ukraine during the trial but still voted to acquit him said they had hoped Trump would learn a lesson from the impeachment saga. But Trump has emerged emboldened and eager for retribution, even as Republicans speak out against him.
“We deserve an explanation,” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “These are important positions. They are watchdogs for these agencies, and they have an important role to play, and I think it’s important for us to be a part of the oversight process.”
But Republicans also acknowledged that the president has the authority to decide who serves in his executive branch, and most stopped short of endorsing more aggressive mechanisms to compel the president’s compliance. As Democrats introduced legislation that would require congressional approval for the firing of an inspector general, several Republicans said it was too soon to consider such an action — and reiterated that the president is already required by law to provide a detailed justification, even as he maintains the authority to hire and fire these officials.
“The inspector general serves a purpose,” said Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of GOP leadership. “But they do serve at the discretion of the president, which seems to be contradictory but that’s the way the law is written.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters on Monday that he would consider supporting legislation from Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) aimed at shielding inspectors general from politically motivated terminations, but he didn’t rule out introducing his own proposal.
“I would like to see a way to preserve the independence of the inspectors general,” Romney said. “There are multiple ways one could potentially do that.”
Linick’s firing drew criticism from some Senate Republicans over the weekend, including Grassley, Collins and Romney. They’re the same GOP senators who sought details on Trump’s firing of Atkinson, who was also sacked on a Friday night with little by way of an official explanation.
And on Monday, Grassley sent yet another letter to the president demanding that he provide a written explanation for his removal of Linick by June 1. The Iowa Republican also followed up on his previous demand about Atkinson’s firing. That response was due on April 13, but Trump has thus far ignored the letter.
Grassley said on Monday he expects a response this week, adding he has been pressing the White House on the issue.
“I had a telephone call maybe two weeks ago because I was complaining I didn’t get an answer,” Grassley said. “And they said, ‘We’re gonna get you one right away.’ Well, they didn’t get it right away. But we’re gonna get it.”
Rather than heed the senators’ advice, Trump called out Collins in a tweet late Sunday night and said she and other senators should deal with “this whole whistleblower racket.” It was a direct shot not only at Collins, but also at Grassley, who has long advocated for the independence of inspectors general and protections for whistleblowers.
When asked about Trump’s tweet, Collins said “there seems to be a bit of confusion” and emphasized that her comments “were in reference to the removal of the State Department inspector general.”
It’s not just the usual suspects who have asked Trump to back off his war on independent oversight agencies. Last month, Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) wrote to Trump asking him to support inspectors general rather than undermine them, in particular after Trump reassigned a Health and Human Services watchdog who had published reports that were critical of the administration.
“One thing I think must be done is that we follow the law, which is 30 days notice and a rationale,” Portman reiterated on Monday. “Although we understand these are executive branch confirmed positions and the president has the right under the Constitution to decide who he wants in his executive branch, we wanted there to be some degree of independence.”
Trump said on Monday he fired Linick at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s request.
Linick was investigating Pompeo and his wife over allegations that they improperly directed political appointees to run personal errands for them, including walking their dog and picking up their dry cleaning. Linick was also probing the Trump administration’s effort to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia without congressional approval, Democrats said on Monday.
The Democratic-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee is investigating the firing, alongside the Democratic minority of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Republicans have thus far declined to join that effort, prompting withering criticism from Democrats.
“Is a mild rebuke the most my Republican colleagues can muster? A tweet? Concerned statements?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “They are so afraid of President Trump, they cling almost to his ankles that when they know he is doing wrong, when they know he is hiding the truth, they’re afraid to say anything. They shudder. I’ve never seen anything like it.”