Rachel Maddow on Monday explained how Donald Trump’s shutdown is undermining the work of the FBI and could put American national security at risk in the long term.
The MSNBC host said that if one wanted to “screw up the whole FBI” in short order, all they would have to do is take away paychecks from everybody in the bureau.
As we’re now seeing with the ongoing government shutdown, that’s exactly what is starting to happen.
“With that one genius move, you can break the family finances of basically every single federal law enforcement and national security agent in the country,” Maddow said, adding that this would be a great strategy to discourage top talent from joining the FBI.
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Video:
Rachel Maddow says the shutdown is hurting America’s national security. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/YQZL1cqqJV
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) January 22, 2019
Maddow said:
Given that reality, one easy-peezy way to screw up the whole FBI, not even just the FBI, everybody involved in law enforcement and national security and intelligence work. If you want to take a quick shiv to that whole part of the U.S. Government, it’s easy. Just start taking away paychecks from all of those people all at once. And not just one paycheck, it would really help if it was multiple paychecks. Let them go multiple pay periods with zero income, while still requiring them to work every day. With that one genius move, you can break the family finances of basically every single federal law enforcement and national security agent in the country. And think of all you could accomplish with just that one move. For one, you actually do risk national security by making all of those people potentially more susceptible to compromise, right? There is a reason why financial strain is a big red flag when it comes to security clearances, right? And law enforcement and national security jobs. Putting all of the people in this country and all of those jobs under serious financial strain all at once, it does systematically increase their potential susceptibility to compromise or corruption.
Trump’s shutdown will have long-lasting effects
Even if the shutdown were to end tomorrow, which it will not, it is likely to have long-lasting effects, not just on the families struggling to pay their bills but also to the national security of the United States.
As Maddow noted on Monday, what Trump has done is demonstrate that working in important federal law enforcement positions is not a stable career path – not when a petty man-child is running the government.
While the president claims he’s holding the government hostage right now because he is so concerned about America’s national security, he is only putting the country more at risk.
There is no national security emergency at the southern border, but this president’s continued insistence that the government must remain shut down until he gets his border wall makes future national security emergencies more likely.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
