Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Condemning President Trump’s Unlawful Abuse Of Power After Firings Of Well-Qualified Government Officials

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to bring attention to the unprecedented, unlawful firings of an appointed commissioner of the National Labor Relations Board and two Democratic members of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday, President Trump showed his true, hostile colors to the working people and union members in America.

Without cause, the president took the unprecedented step of firing a duly appointed commissioner of the National Labor Relations Board years before their term was set to expire. Then last night, President Trump fired two Democratic members of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, leaving that body frozen without a quorum.

Let’s be very clear: these unlawful firings are a direct assault on working people. The president’s decision will increase workplace discrimination, worsen unfair hiring practices, and erode workers’ ability to push for better wages and safer working conditions.

What these firings will do is stack the deck against employees trying to organize, or join a union, to get better benefits and better pay. Donald Trump says he wants to help working families, but this is no way to do it.

And these firings are clearly unlawful. These purges are another example of Donald Trump’s lawless presidency, like his pardon of insurrectionists, eliminating independent watchdogs, and illegally freezing congressionally approved funding.

Everything Donald Trump is doing fits a pattern: he’s abusing the office of the presidency and breaking the law to rig the system to help his billionaire friends, all at the expense of working families.

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