Abigail Tracy, writing for Vanity Fair:
“The outrage over the firing of Steve Linick, the State Department inspector general, was in a word: predictable. As the latest in Donald Trump’s so-called purge of inspectors general across the administration, Democrats’ fiery condemnations and the tempered Republican criticisms from the usual suspects on the right—Senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, and Chuck Grassley, a longtime oversight advocate—felt choreographed. The steady drip of revelations potentially tying Linick’s dismissal to Mike Pompeo’s leadership of the State Department, coupled with questionable cameos by his wife, Susan, however, have been less expected—if not entirely surprising. But while the inspector general’s ouster may have sparked a deluge of questions about whether it was retaliatory in nature, Pompeo’s problems are really rooted in his own political ambitions.”
Said one former State Department official: “It’s just so extreme. He’s using the institution to clearly advance his own personal interests.”
“In Donald Trump’s world, this is a line you’re not supposed to cross. The ultimate user, he doesn’t like to be used.”
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