Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) claimed Sunday on MSNBC’s “Inside” that “nobody in the civil service can be fired because of political reasons.”
Raskin said, “The attack on the FBI is extraordinary because for decades it really has been an apolitical operation. There are Republicans who work there, Independents, Democrats. They’ve served all administrations. and now, just because they were assigned to work on the most massive attack on the U.S. Capitol in American history and to prosecute cop assaulters they’re being fired or they’re being investigated. So there’s this mass purge taking place, obviously, coming from the top. What their overriding and what we’re standing on in the first wave of this is the civil service protections that people have. You know, even at the FBI, people have to have a due process administrative hearing before they’re fired.”
He added, “Nobody in the civil service can be fired because of political reasons. That’s the whole reason we have a civil service. The civil service exists so people aren’t fired for political reasons. The only justification being given for any of these firings, whether we’re talking about prosecutors, FBI agents, people and other agencies, is we feel like you can’t get with the president’s program. You can’t serve him. Of course, they haven’t been given a chance.”
He added, “So these are apolitical, professional, civil service people, they’ve not been given the chance. They’re just essentially accused of guilt by association for doing their jobs before. That’s an amazing thing. So it’s a very dangerous moment for the American people because the professional independent civil service serves us. It’s all of the laws and programs that Congress has adopted on behalf of the people, like Social Security, like Medicare, like the national parks, like the FBI itself, like prosecution. And suddenly they are trying to bring it directly under the control of the president for political purposes.”
Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN