In a recent closed door meeting at the Republican National Convention, Gov. Chris Christie outlined the Trump campaign’s plan to remove Obama appointees from office. They would do so by seeking to change the laws on civil servants, as the campaign fears the Obama administration would “burrow” these employees into their appointments. Reuters received a copy of the audio from the meeting.
Christie had this to say about the campaign’s strategy, should they win the November 8 election against Hillary Clinton:
“It’s called burrowing… You take them from the political appointee side into the civil service side, in order to try to set up … roadblocks for your successor, kind of like when all the Clinton people took all the Ws off the keyboard when George Bush was coming into the White House.”
Christie was referring to a prank that some Bill Clinton staffers executed near the end of his presidency. Comparing a silly (though misguided) prank to firing hundreds of people seems a bit extreme. But again, this is the Trump presidential campaign. Christie continued with how they would root out these “burrowed” employees:
“One of the things I have suggested to Donald is that we have to immediately ask the Republican Congress to change the civil service laws. Because if they do, it will make it a lot easier to fire those people.”
Christie also referred to the laws regarding civil servants as “cumbersome” and “time-consuming.”
Christie touched on a few other topics during the meeting. He reiterated Trump’s plan for dismantling the EPA and reviving United States oil and coal industries. He wants to add part time businessmen to government roles so they would not have to quit their private sector jobs. He also neglected to name any of Trump’s potential cabinet members, although he surely holds out hope that he will be named in that group after being passed up as Trump’s VP for Mike Pence. Maybe Judge Christie wants to be Attorney General.
Image via Flickr by Bob Jagendorf under The Creative Commons License 2.0.
