Thread by @windthin

1/22 We've reached the point of mass firings & resignations.

First the heads of 3 agencies were fired, overseeing the nuclear weapons stockpile, electricity & natural gas regulation, & overseas aid, overshadowed by the ongoing drama of the close election.
npr.org/sections/live-…

2/ Lisa Gordon-Hagerty was administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the first woman to oversee the agency in charge of the nuclear stockpile, was required to resign on Friday the 6th. reviewjournal.com/news/politics-…

3/ Bonnie Glick, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. She was replaced by acting Administrator John Barsa, who had run out of time for his more senior role under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. cnn.com/2020/11/06/pol…

4/ Neil Chatterjee, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was replaced as chairman, though he will remain at FERC, an independent agency, as a commissioner. cnn.com/2020/11/06/bus…

5/ This was followed by the more widely-published firing via tweet of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who it was known had already planned to resign.

theguardian.com/us-news/2020/n…

6/ With Esper gone, Democrats grew concerned over what Trump will do with the military

Fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper has clashed with the president over a variety of topics since the summer. politico.com/news/2020/11/0…

7/ Esper’s firing plunged the Pentagon into a new period of leadership upheaval as it tried to manage an unusual transition period fraught with political tensions and potential security risks. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

8/ Democrats and independents criticized the decision, saying the abrupt change could endanger American security at an already vulnerable moment. cnn.com/2020/11/09/pol…

9/ Trump immediately began packing the Pentagon with loyalists, some with no experience, others so outlandish that even the GOP Senate had refused to allow them previously.

Desperate to hold the Senate in two Georgia runoffs, a frustrated GOP kept silent: washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

10/ Trump’s new acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, began a since-aborted diplomatic gambit last month to negotiate with a Somali terrorist group — drawing the ire of the secretary of state. nytimes.com/2020/11/11/us/…

11/ Christopher Miller, Trump’s surprise acting defense secretary, has a thin resume for the job but deep experience in counterterrorism

washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

12/ Others being packed into the Pentagon include a who's who of violent, Islamaphobic, racist, and controversial figures.

washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/1…

13/ These include retired Army Col. Doug Macgregor, special assistant to Miller, an ardent opponent of the US military's presence in Afghanistan who called for the use of lethal force against illegal immigrants & has made a litany of racist comments.
cnn.com/2020/11/11/pol…

14/ General Anthony Tata, a man so extreme McConnell's Senate refused to confirm him in June, now the new Pentagon Policy Chief.

Tata has called Obama a terrorist leader and Muslim and defenseone.com/policy/2020/11…

15/ pushed conspiracy theories on Twitter that former CIA Director John Brennan sought to overthrow Trump and even to have him assassinated. cnn.com/2020/06/23/pol…

16/ Ezra Cohen-Watnick, an ally of disgraced General Michael Flynn, leaked intelligence in 2017 bolstering Trump's claims that Obama had him wiretapped. He's now acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security. jpost.com/american-polit…

17/ And then there's Kash Patel, long time aide to Devin Nunes who helped him undermine the Russia investigations, for which he was promoted to the NSC, and and is now chief of staff to Christopher Miller.

wsj.com/articles/white…

18/ On top of this, the White House continues to vet aides for a second term that's not going to happen... thedailybeast.com/trump-white-ho…

19/ ...And Richard Pilger, the Justice Department’s top election crimes prosecutor, resigned in protest after AG and personal Trump fixer Bill Barr authorized U.S. attorneys to probe alleged elections fraud. nbcnews.com/politics/2020-…

20/ Most recently, Bryan Ware, the Assistant Director for Cybersecurity for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), was forced to resign Thursday.

reuters.com/article/us-usa…

21/ DHS assistant secretary for international affairs Valerie Boyd also resigned amid pressure from the White House the same day.

cnn.com/2020/11/12/pol…

22/22 Where exactly all of this is headed nobody is certain, but the fact that so many high level people in charge of security and the military are being removed is worrisome.

The one thing we do know is that this new level of #TrumpChaos is only just beginning.

The Trump regime plans to auction drilling rights in the U.S. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Biden’s inauguration. Biden, meanwhile, has pledged to permanently protect the refuge, saying drilling there would be a “big disaster.” bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

The Trump regime is urging Mitch McConnell to confirm Chad Wolf as Homeland Security secretary before Inauguration Day. Wolf has been acting secretary for a year & his appointment was invalidated by the Government Accountability Office & in federal court. cnn.com/2020/11/13/pol…

In Trump’s final days, a 30-year-old aide purges officials seen as insufficiently loyal

Engineering much of the post-election purge is former college quarterback and staunch Trump loyalist Johnny McEntee. washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…