I write fluidly across different venues. Here, on social media, in emails with readers … and I sometimes lose track of where I’ve said what. So I wanted to agree with something TPM Reader XX1 says below. I’m skeptical the White House will follow through on their threats to carry out a new wholesale round of firings, as Russ Vought is threatening. I’m not saying they won’t. They totally might. So this isn’t something I’m relying on or telling you to rely on. I’m just skeptical for two reasons. The first is that this White House doesn’t need a shut down to fire people. Despite the law breaking it entails they’ve made clear that, with the Court’s assistance, they can fire as many people as they want. If they thought it helped them to fire more people they’d be doing that already, the shutdown provides zero new legal power to fire anyone.
‘Want’ is the key word here.