Fox News anchor Kayleigh McEnany pointed to a 2017 Washington Post article about bureaucratic resistance to President Donald Trump during his first term after Marie Harf, a former official in the Obama administration, complained on Monday about the firing of government workers.
Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by renaming the United States Digital Service in an executive order on January 20. He also gave the commission more duties. As a result, some federal agencies are letting go of employees.
During the “Outnumbered” discussion, McEnany brought up reports that some federal government workers were trying to stay “out of spite” so they could wait for Trump’s term to end.
“I do think that federal employees fall into three buckets, you have the political appointees, some of whom are thrilled that this is happening, they see this as a revolution in government. Then you have this other pot of hardworking federal government employees, I think they don’t care who the president is, I think they care deeply about their job and that pot does exist, but that is not all federal workers,” McEnany said.
“There are federal workers that have this attitude, this was an NBC anonymous communication that came to them, I saw this a few weeks ago, a federal employee at the Department of Veterans affairs, ‘A lot of us are going to stay out of spite,’ they said. ‘We’re here for however long we want to be here. I could be here until retirement in 30 years, the Trump Administration is only here for four.’ What’s wrong with trying to root out and employees staying out of spite?” McEnany continued.
Harf replied that the firings were not legal and went on to criticize DOGE for “attacks on public servants” for almost two minutes. Friday, a federal judge let layoffs at the US Agency for International Development happen, even though two unions that represent agency workers had sued.
“DOGE isn’t managing these people and at the same time, people across the country can’t pay their mortgages or put food on the table for their kids because they got fired from a job they thought had job security. That is not electorally or morally a good plan, I think, for Republicans,” Harf said.
After some back and forth, McEnany brought up the 2017 Washington Post article about Trump’s first-term bureaucrats who fought against his policies.
“It’s easy to oversimplify and point to some stories of individuals who got termination notices, but the background is this: This is not a Republican newspaper, conservative newspaper, this is ‘the Washington Post’… years ago: ‘Resistance From Within The Federal Government,’” McEnany said.
“Listen to this, less than two weeks into the Trump Administration, federal workers are in regular consultation with recently-departed Obama-era political appointees about what they can do to push back against the new president’s initiatives. There was even a support group that took place about how to resist the Trump Administration. That should not happen. That is undermining the will of the American people,” McEnany added.
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Kayleigh McEnany Drops Receipts After Panelist Whines About Gov’t Layoffs
Trump’s approval rating has managed to hold firm and remain in the positive exactly one month after taking office and amid a rapid introduction of his agenda.
Trump has recorded at least 50 percent approval ratings in three recent surveys, Newsweek reported, adding that the “surveys suggest that most Americans approve of the job the president is doing, despite other polls indicating that Trump’s favorability ratings have declined since his first few days back in office.”
A SurveyUSA poll of 2,000 adults found that a majority (51 percent) approve of Trump’s job as president, while 45 percent disapprove, giving him a net approval score of +6 points.
When analyzed by region, the results reveal that Trump enjoys stronger approval in rural areas (59 percent) compared to suburban (48 percent) and urban areas (51 percent).
A separate Morning Consult poll showed that 50 percent of voters approve of Trump’s job as president, while 47 percent disapprove.