D.C. Memo: Why Did Trump Sack FTC Dems? 'Time Was Right,' Leavitt Says

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FTC: So why did President Trump on Tuesday fire FTC Democrats Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya? “Because the time was right to let these people go, and the President absolutely has the authority to do it,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt yesterday during a White House press briefing. “They were given ample notice in a letter … It pretty much explains exactly why this administration chose to let those individuals go.” She was asked if the Trump administration was setting up a legal contest to overturn Humphrey’s Executor v. U.S., (1935) which blocked President Franklin Roosevelt from firing an FTC Commissioner on policy grounds. “The goal was to let these individuals go. If we have to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, we certainly will,” Leavitt said. Democrats are fighting back. Bedoya told the N.Y. Times he will go to court and Slaughter was reportedly planning the same. A group of Senate Democrats, led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Richard Durbin (Il.) sent a letter to Trump yesterday urging him to reverse his decision. “This action contradicts long standing Supreme Court precedent, undermines Congress’s constitutional authority to create bipartisan, independent commissions, and upends more than 110 years of work at the FTC to protect consumers from deceptive practices and monopoly power,” the lawmakers said. Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) did not sign the letter. (Continued after paywall.)