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White House to upset purged Trump appointees: get over it

27 May 2021
Dan Ackermann

The White House has a simple message for Trump appointees venting to the media about losing their jobs since President Biden took office: get over it.

Why it matters: The White House has been methodically clearing house, a practice former President Trump followed when he was elected — most prominently at the State Department. The aim is to install staff more in sync with an administration starkly different than its predecessor.

What they're saying: “Elections have consequences," said White House spokesperson Mike Gwin.

  • "President Biden won with a commanding victory in November, and now he has the right and obligation to make sure the positions he fills reflect the priorities he campaigned on."

Between the lines: Trump appointees have not been going quietly.

  • “I got completely screwed,” one appointee, Vanessa Ambrosini, told Politico in February.
  • Ambrosini lost her parental leave, along with other benefits, after Biden was sworn in on Jan. 20.

Most recently, the White House axed members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which oversees the architecture of federal buildings in D.C.

  • "I was shocked and dismayed to learn that three of my fellow commissioners, along with myself, have been asked to resign or be terminated by the president," commission chair Justin Shubow said in a statement.
  • "Any such removal would set a terrible precedent."

National Security Agency general counsel Michael Ellis, who Trump installed immediately after the presidential race was called for President Biden, also vented in his resignation letter.

  • Ellis complained he had been put “on administrative leave for nearly three months without any explanation or updates.”

Such turnover is par for the course; when Trump took office, he axed a number of Obama appointees.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.