FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Steve Lenkart
Phone: 202-216-4458
Washington, D.C. – Today, the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) expressed its outrage in response to the public comments made by President Trump yesterday where the POTUS threatened and intimidated a legally protected whistleblower and their informant by ordering that they be identified and insinuating that they were a spy that should be (presumably) killed like they would have been in the “old days.”
Trump said: “I want to know who’s the person, who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy.” Trump continued, “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
“It is important that members of Congress and the American public understand that President Trump has reached an unacceptable new low with these comments,” said Randy Erwin, National President of the National Federation of Federal Employees. “Whistleblowers are not spies, and the protections they have are there to protect them from exactly this kind of politically-motivated retribution. President Trump’s comments go way beyond anything we have seen from him before. These are thinly veiled threats that are clearly meant to intimidate civil servants from coming forward as whistleblowers. It is unacceptable for a sitting President to be making threatening comments like these. These comments are outrageous.”
NFFE is calling on all members of Congress to condemn President Trump’s threatening comments.
“It is very important that every member of Congress stand up for civil servants that are being threatened by President Trump and condemn these comments publicly,” Erwin continued. “President Trump is not just threatening one or two people here; he is threatening millions of people – including approximately 2 million civil service federal employees – with these comments. President Trump is basically saying, ‘If you exercise ethical judgement and blow the whistle on something that makes me look bad, I’m going to find out who you are, and I’m going to come after you.’ These comments are unethical, illegal, and a threat to our democracy. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle should condemn these comments immediately.”
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