White House to the Public: Give Us What We Want or We’ll Hurt You

The White House is threatening mass firings of government workers amid a shutdown. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

“The Trump administration is threatening to inflict massive harm on all of us unless Democrats in Congress surrender in the funding fight. A temporary lapse in funding does not provide grounds for an agency to fire federal workers indiscriminately – and really, this is just a threat to harm the public if Republicans don’t get their way.

“Senator Schumer correctly pointed out that the Trump White House has been firing federal workers since Day One and shows no sign of stopping, whether or not there’s a shutdown. But the administration is begging workers it already fired to come back, not because a court made them do it, but because these workers are essential and indispensable. Desperation is the only word for this latest bullying move from the White House.

“This whole saga demonstrates exactly who is to blame for a shutdown: Trump and Republicans in Congress. Instead of negotiating a funding deal in good faith like every White House and Congress in history has managed to do, Trump and Republicans are threatening the American people with ruin if they don’t get their way. This is how dictators and comic book archvillains behave. Congress must not back down in the face of this reprehensible and unAmerican threat against all of us.”