CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Calls Out New Trump Threat — Words Could Be Used ‘In Forthcoming Lawsuits’
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins called out President Donald Trump’s threat to target Democrats with mass layoffs as punishment for the government shutdown, noting it could end up bolstering lawsuits.
Trump took questions from reporters Friday evening after an announcement on lowering prescription drug prices, during which he explicitly threatened “Democrat-oriented” mass firings.
On Friday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, the anchor played a clip of Trump’s threat, and noted “Whether those words will be used in forthcoming lawsuits, remains to be seen”:
KAITLAN COLLINS: Tonight, President Trump is taking an unprecedented step, to maximize the pain of this government shutdown that is still dragging on, for people who played no part in shutting the government down.
Making good on the President’s threat, the administration has started firing federal workers. Word came from the same official that the President portrayed, just last week, as the Grim Reaper. This AI video is the public image that the President amplified for his Budget Director, Russ Vought. The actual announcement came in just four words. The RIFs have begun. RIF, meaning Reduction in Force.
And when the President himself was asked about this, inside the Oval Office, just a few hours ago, including who exactly is going to be fired as a part of this mass layoff that they have threatened to happen, during this government shutdown, he didn’t offer any information other than to state very clearly what his objective is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: How many layoffs have you authorized for this first round?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, it’ll be a lot (ph).
REPORTER: And from which agencies? TRUMP: And it will be Democrat-oriented, because we figure, you know, they started this thing, so they should be Democrat-oriented. It will be a lot, and we’ll announce the numbers over the next couple of days, but it will be a lot of people, all because of the Democrats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Whether those words will be used in forthcoming lawsuits remains to be seen.
But the only hard numbers that we’ve gotten our hands on tonight, about these firings, came from a court filing that said more than 4,000 people were given layoff notices, across seven different government agencies. Commerce. Education. Energy. Health and Human Services. Housing and Urban Development. The Department of Homeland Security. And the Treasury Department. The reason we have those numbers is because unions that represent federal workers are already in court, arguing that these layoffs are illegal.
But the administration, on the other hand, is arguing that the loss of federal employment, as they put it, would not take place until weeks or months from now, if at all.
And the President, who, of course, made You’re fired, a catchphrase, during his career before entering politics, is doing what no president, during any of the 14 government shutdowns since 1981, has done. Mass firings.
I asked the press secretary about that unprecedented move, earlier this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Historically, though, in past shutdowns, workers have been furloughed but they have not been laid off en masse. So, wouldn’t that be the President’s call to lay people off?
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: As I’ve said repeatedly, Kaitlan, this conversation about layoffs would not be happening right now if the Democrats did not vote to shut the government down.
And as I also said last briefing as well, we are $37 trillion in debt, and the government is not receiving any cash. So, someone has to look at the balance sheet and be good stewards of the American taxpayer dollar. And layoffs are an unfortunate consequence of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
