'There will be consequences': Former GOP rep slams Trump’s 'careless' and 'haphazard' firings

The Trump administration, with the help of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE (which is not a Congressionally authorized federal agency), continues pushing dramatic cuts to the United States' federal workforce. According to the Washington Post, as many as 200,000 federal workers may be laid off.

Much of the criticism of these cuts is coming from Democrats, but some Republicans are speaking out as well — including former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa).

During a Monday afternoon, February 17 appearance on MSNBC, the Allentown native and moderate conservative argued that the Trump/DOGE cuts go way beyond targeting government waste — they are carelessly targeting important services.

READ MORE: George Conway: Trump’s 'pathological narcissism' is fueling 'full-scale' DOJ 'revolt'

Dent told host Ali Vitali and former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance (a frequent legal analyst for MSNBC), "Any new administration, incoming administration — sure, if they want to enter into some kind of reduction in force, they're allowed to do that. But there's a proper and a right way to do it and a smart and a strategic way to do it. But what these guys are doing, these firings are haphazard. They're indiscriminate, they're careless. And there will be consequences…. I think this administration is making a big mistake with this."

The GOP ex-congressman noted that the Trump administration hasn't figured out how it to going to fund the buyouts of federal government employees.

"The money has not been appropriated for this purpose," Dent argued. "So it just seems to be that they are just really trying to break things."

During the segment, Vitali also delved into the legal aspects of the Trump/DOGE mass firings.

READ MORE: George Conway: Trump’s 'pathological narcissism' is fueling 'full-scale' DOJ 'revolt'

Vitali noted that the Trump administration is "citing poor performance" with the firings even though the workers' "actual reviews showed the opposite." When Vitali asked Vance if this gives them any "legal ground" to try to "get their jobs back," the ex-federal prosecutor replied, "Well, it absolutely does."

Vance continued, "And like the congressman was suggesting, there is a way that you can do reductions in force. There is even a way that you can fire poor-performing federal employees. But this is not it. This is just an irrational sort of an effort to achieve a political goal that's not tied to the work that federal employees do on behalf of the American people every day. So, by taking employees who are high-performing, who have years of performance evaluations that document their supervisor's satisfaction with the work that they're doing, this new program is setting up a variety of legal routes that these now-former employees can take, either to restore their employment or to receive some other form of remedy."

READ MORE: 'Brutal': Ex-federal prosecutor reveals why Trump DOJ’s 'illegal order' was 'so corrupt'

Watch the full video below or at this link.

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