[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 93 (Monday, May 18, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S2471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          State Department IG

  Mr. President, on another matter, last Friday night, in the dark of 
night, President Trump fired the inspector general of the State 
Department, Mr. Steve Linick. Mr. Linick, according to reports, had 
been investigating the misuse of public resources by Secretary Pompeo 
and the Trump administration's arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
  Mr. Linick is now the fifth--yes, the fifth--inspector general to be 
fired by President Trump from his or her post in the last few months. 
They all shared one thing in common. They had the audacity to do their 
jobs and speak the truth. They had the audacity to try and drain the 
swamp.
  What is Donald Trump's reaction when he hears the truth? He fires the 
people who have spoken it. What kind of President is that?
  During normal times it is bad enough, but during a crisis, it is more 
awful. The Inspector General of the Intelligence Committee delivered a 
whistleblower report to Congress as required by law. For this, it 
seems, he was fired.
  It was through the work of the HHS inspector general the public 
learned the extent of the Trump administration's failure to provide 
hospitals and medical workers with testing, PPE, and necessary 
personnel in the early days of the pandemic. She has been fired too.
  The inspector general for the Defense Department and the 
Transportation Department have been fired, as well, just as they were 
about to oversee parts of the administration's response to COVID.
  Now it is Mr. Linick who was looking into potential wrongdoing at the 
State Department.
  The inspectors general are the watchdogs for our Federal agencies, 
making sure our government is working for the people. That is what they 
are there to do: Hold government accountable for waste and fraud and 
abuse. But if they actually do their jobs and say that the President is 
doing something wrong, he fires them.
  The President can't handle the truth and will not tolerate oversight 
of his administration when truth speakers speak out. No other 
administration has come close to doing this. This President is so 
different, running almost a rogue administration that defies truth, 
that defies facts. Now five inspectors general have been fired all 
because they were doing their job, telling the truth, and trying to 
clean up the mess in Washington.
  We know this about President Trump, but where the heck are my 
Republican colleagues in the Senate? My friends on the other side, 
especially the senior Senator from Iowa, have long defended and even 
sought to pass legislation to further empower inspectors general. Well, 
the President has just fired a parade of independent watchdogs and 
given no legitimate explanation for their dismissals.
  Is a mild rebuke the most my Republican colleagues can muster--a 
tweet? Some concerned statements?
  This is not the first time the President has fired an IG and failed 
to provide a sufficient explanation. So what are our Republican 
colleagues going to do about it? Nothing, it seems. Nothing. They are 
so afraid of President Trump. They so cling--almost to his ankles--that 
when they know he is doing wrong, when they know he is hiding the 
truth, they are afraid to say it. They shudder.
  I have never seen anything like it: a President who is so out of 
control with his party so in line behind him, marching in lockstep. But 
when history looks back on this chapter, on President Trump's purge of 
independent watchdogs during a time of national crisis, it will not 
give credit to Senate Republicans who let the President off the hook 
with at most and only, at times, a polite slap on the wrist.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered