CNN’s Jake Tapper Destroys Trump Over Watchdog Purge In Blistering Commentary
CNN anchor Jake Tapper took President Donald Trump apart over his firings of watchdogs in the military and across government, asking “What does he not want you, the American people” to know about?
On Sunday morning’s edition of CNN’s State of the Union, Tapper dropped a blistering commentary pegged to the firings of military leaders and replacement of JAG officers, and tying them to the firings of at least 18 inspectors general — government watchdogs who police federal agencies.
Tapper suggested the pattern is an indication Trump has something to hide:
TAPPER: As part of President Trump’s purge of top military leaders Friday night, he also moved to replace judge advocates general, or JAGs, at the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
JAGs are the military’s top lawyers. They administer the Military Code of Justice and, perhaps most relevantly, as Biden’s former Secretary of the Air Force Fred (sic) Kendall noted — quote — “These are the generals who have the independent legal authority to tell any military commander that an order from the president or the secretary of defense is unlawful and cannot be obeyed” — unquote.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refers to JAGs in his book as jagoffs, saying that JAGs put their own priorities — quote — “in front of having the backs of those who are making the tough calls on the front line” — unquote.
During his first term in 2019, President Trump, at the urging of Hegseth from his perch at FOX and others, Trump pardoned several service members facing high-profile war crimes allegations, against the advice of the top leaders of the Pentagon.
But it does not seem enough for President Trump and his team to be able to overrule those in his administration who might enforce guardrails or provide oversight. They don’t even seem to want them there to begin with, because Trump’s push to squash oversight did not begin with the firing of the JAGs.
Among his very first acts as president was to fire 18 inspectors general. These are the independent government watchdogs who provide oversight of Cabinet agencies.
Why would Trump want to get rid of all of them, 18? He hasn’t explained, as he’s legally required to do. What would those inspectors general have to say about the ethics and the legality of the mass firings going on? We don’t know. They were fired first, including those, according to a “New York Times” analysis, at 11 federal agencies with more than 32 continuing investigations, pending complaints or enforcement actions into companies owned by Elon Musk.
So what is the response to that from the head of the Office on Governmental Ethics, which monitors financial conflicts of interest across the government? Well, we don’t know because Trump fired him earlier this month.
You starting to sense a theme here? Independence in the Trump administration does not seem to be valued. In fact, it seems to be denigrated.
On Tuesday, Trump signed a far-reaching executive order expanding the White House powers over supposedly independent agencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Election Commission. These are areas that Congress intended to not be under direct presidential control.
Given the compliant nature of the legislative branch and thus the so- called Oversight Committees — and, yes, Senator Grassley, I remember when you cared about inspectors general — one has to ask, what is the endgame here when it comes to this Trump effort to remove watchdogs, to prevent them from doing their jobs?
What does he not want you, the American people, what does he want you to not know about what’s going on in your government?
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