President Donald Trump is receiving criticism for his decision to fire several high ranking officials in the days following the election and his decision to delay the transition process for President-elect Joe Biden.
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) was asked by CBS News on Wednesday what concerned him about Trump’s decision to fire senior administration officials.
“I have several concerns. The first is that he’s getting rid of good people like Director Krebs. The second is … he’s replacing them with people who are either not qualified or purely political or partisan actors,” Schiff said, adding, “That’s not in the national interest.”
He went on to raise concerns that Trump is replacing senior officials with individuals who will implement policies designed to “box in” President-elect Joe Biden.
Specifically, he pointed to the decision to draw down U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, apparently without consulting U.S. allies or Biden.
“Why would he do that? It’s not in the national interest. But Donald Trump thinks it’s in his personal interest, or he thinks it’s in his future political interest. And he has always but his personal interests above those of the nation,” Schiff charged.
He added, “It’s damaging, it’s dangerous, and it’s going to make this transition even more difficult.”
Watch the video below:
.@RepAdamSchiff says President Trump is harming the Biden administration by not only firing top officials, but replacing them with people who are "not qualified" or "partisan actors."
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 18, 2020
"It's damaging, it's dangerous, and it's going to make this transition even more difficult" pic.twitter.com/5Z44QbDLaz
Trump announced in a tweet on Tuesday that he had fired Chris Krebs, the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and accused him of making a “highly inaccurate” about the security of the election.
While Trump has alleged there was widespread voter fraud, Krebs said in a statement that there is “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
Krebs’ firing comes just over a week after Defense Secretary Mark Esper was fired by Trump.
After Esper was removed, Trump installed loyalists in key posts in the Pentagon.
The personnel moves have un-nerved Republicans and Democrats, as IJR reported.
