President Donald Trump addressed his Friday night firing of the inspector general for the intelligence community Michael Atkinson, calling him a “disgrace to IGs.”
“I thought he did a terrible job — absolutely terrible,” Trump said at the Saturday coronavirus task for press briefing.
Atkinson alerted Congress to the whistleblower’s complaint, touching off the inquiry that led to the President’s impeachment.
Calling the complaint “fake,” Trump expressed his outrage that he never met Atkinson in person.
“He never even came into see me,” he said indignantly. “How can you do that without seeing the person?”
Trump quickly segued into bashing the whistleblower himself, whose identity he claimed that reporters in the press briefing room knew.
“Frankly, somebody ought to sue his ass off,” Trump said.
The President sent letters to the Senate and House Intelligence Committee leadership Friday night, announcing that Atkinson would be removed in 30 days. He said that he would put forward a new nominee for Senate confirmation “at a later date.”
