Trump Advisers Call For A ‘Purge’ Of Obama Appointees
Sat 2:22 pm +00:00, 4 Mar 2017
Earlier this week, in an appearance on Fox News, Trump confirmed his beliefs that Obama is behind the litany of leaks that have plagued his administration over the past couple of months.
“No, I think he [Obama] is behind it, because his people are certainly behind it. I also think it is politics, that’s the way it is.”
Trump on protests: “I think that President Obama is behind it” pic.twitter.com/vvxNyV22NU
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 28, 2017
And while the source of the leaks may be easy to deduce, the appropriate response is not so easy to implement. That said, there is a growing chorus of advisers to the President who are urging him to purge the government of former Obama political appointees and quickly install more people who are loyal to him.
Newt Gingrich is among those calling for such a purge…per Politico:
“His playbook should be to get rid of the Obama appointees immediately,” said Newt Gingrich, a top surrogate. “There are an amazing number of decisions that are being made by appointees that are totally opposed to Trump and everything he stands for. Who do you think those people are responding to?”
Gingrich added: “Ninety-five percent of the bureaucrats are against him.”
Meanwhile, Gingrinch offered a backhanded compliment to Schumer, saying “I didn’t get it early on. This is not about slowing down the Cabinet. This is about keeping working control of the government for Obama. It’s actually very shrewd on Schumer’s part.”
Gingrich said he blamed Sen. Chuck Schumer for slow-walking the nominees, though Schumer’s office notes that many of the picks were not properly vetted: At least three have already dropped out. The Office of Government Ethics remains overwhelmed with applications now, “but they are beginning to catch up,” one person involved in the nominations said. At many agencies, no top positions are filled, which means the layers of political appointees that report to them haven’t been picked, either.
“I didn’t get it early on. This is not about slowing down the Cabinet. This is about keeping working control of the government for Obama,” Gingrich said. “It’s actually very shrewd on Schumer’s part. Trump is not going to have control of the government until at least June.”
Roger Stone also chimed in on the debate saying the Trump administration should have cut ties with Obama’s staff “a long time ago, a long, long time ago.”
“If you employ people who aren’t loyal to you, you can’t be surprised when they leak,” said Roger Stone, another longtime adviser. A third person close to Trump said: “He should have gotten these people who are out to get him out a long time ago, a long, long time ago. I think they know that now.”
“You hire a bunch of people in the West Wing who are hacks and aren’t loyal to you, and you’ll have a bunch of leaks,” Stone said. “There aren’t that many Trump loyalists in the White House.”
Of course, in reality, Trump’s problems go much deeper than just the remaining Obama appointees as government agencies around Washington D.C. are staffed with 1,000s of career civil servants, many of whom loath President Trump’s administration and its agenda.
The reality, however, is more complicated: The White House has thousands of open jobs across the agencies, many nonpolitical civilian employees are critical of the administration, and some Cabinet secretaries say they need the Obama people during a rocky transition.
Only a few dozen Obama political appointees remain in the federal government apparatus, according to the Partnership for Public Service. Many of them are in crucial positions, including Robert Work, a top official at the Department of Defense, and Thomas Shannon, the acting deputy at the State Department.
Even if Trump were to ax those remaining senior political appointees, he would still have to reckon with the hundreds of thousands of civilian employees, who stay with every administration. Many of them are skeptical of Trump because they resent his assault on Washington and its culture, his impulsive decisions and his seeming lack of intellectual curiosity about their agencies and work.
The swamp seems to be much deeper than anyone could have predicted.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-03/trump-advisers-call-purge-obama-appointees
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Barack Obama commands a 30,000 strong leftist army, tasked with inciting violence against President Trump
Barack Obama never had any intention of quietly riding off into the sunset, to respectfully allow President Trump to do the job he rightfully won in November.
Once a Saul Alinsky disciple, always a Saul Alinsky. Once a community organizer, always a community organizer.
Barack Obama is a man who prefers working behind the scenes to further his deadly narcissism. “Lead from behind” is his motto.
Now living two miles away from the White House, the former commander and chief is building an army of liberal left agitators, whose sole purpose is to sabotage the Trump administration and its popular “America First” agenda.
Former President Obama is quietly working in the shadows to ensure his leftist, neo-liberal legacy is not razed to the ground by President Trump. His tool for accomplishing his divisive goal…a network of leftist nonprofits numbering 30,000 strong, led by Organizing for Action.
Normally you’d expect an organization set up to support a politician and his agenda to close up shop after that candidate leaves office, but not Obama’s OFA. Rather, it’s gearing up for battle, with a growing war chest and more than 250 offices across the country.
Since Donald Trump’s election, this little-known but well-funded protesting arm has beefed up staff and ramped up recruitment of young liberal activists, declaring on its website, “We’re not backing down.” Determined to salvage Obama’s legacy, it’s drawing battle lines on immigration, ObamaCare, race relations and climate change.
Obama is intimately involved in OFA operations and even tweets from the group’s account. In fact, he gave marching orders to OFA foot soldiers following Trump’s upset victory.
“It is fine for everybody to feel stressed, sad, discouraged,” he said in a conference call from the White House. “But get over it.” He demanded they “move forward to protect what we’ve accomplished.”
“Now is the time for some organizing,” he said. “So don’t mope.”
Far from sulking, OFA activists helped organize anti-Trump marches across US cities, some of which turned into riots. After Trump issued a temporary ban on immigration from seven terror-prone Muslim nations, the demonstrators jammed airports, chanting: “No ban, no wall, sanctuary for all!”
Run by old Obama aides and campaign workers, federal tax records show “nonpartisan” OFA marshals 32,525 volunteers nationwide. Registered as a 501(c)(4), it doesn’t have to disclose its donors, but they’ve been generous. OFA has raised more than $40 million in contributions and grants since evolving from Obama’s campaign organization Obama for America in 2013.
OFA, in IRS filings, says it trains young activists to develop “organizing skills.” Armed with Obama’s 2012 campaign database, OFA plans to get out the vote for Democratic candidates it’s grooming to win back Congress and erect a wall of resistance to Trump at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
It will be aided in that effort by the Obama Foundation, run by Obama’s former political director, and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, launched last month by Obama pal Eric Holder to end what he and Obama call GOP “gerrymandering” of congressional districts.
Obama will be overseeing it all from a shadow White House located within two miles of Trump. It features a mansion, which he’s fortifying with construction of a tall brick perimeter, and a nearby taxpayer-funded office with his own chief of staff and press secretary. Michelle Obama will also open an office there, along with the Obama Foundation.
Critical to the fight is rebuilding the ravaged Democrat Party. Obama hopes to install his former civil-rights chief Tom Perez at the helm of the Democratic National Committee.
Perez is running for the vacant DNC chairmanship, vowing “It’s time to organize and fight . . . We must stand up to protect President Obama’s accomplishments;” while also promising, “We’re going to build the strongest grass-roots organizing force this country has ever seen.”
