Sen. Bob Menendez Reacts to the Firing of IG Steve Linick

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Why do you think this crisis has happened? Why was Linick fired in your estimation?

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): Well, Christiane, the reality is, is after being there through two administrations, Inspector General Linick was tough during the Obama administration, he’s been there for three-and-a-half years, nearly the entirety of the Trump administration to let him go now wreaks to high heaven that obviously what he was investigating was problematic for the secretary of state and he — the secretary of state went to the president, the president said he had no longer had confidence, which is not a basis really for letting the inspector general go. And so, this is an assault — this is the fourth time we have had an inspector general go from different departments. It seems to always happen on a Friday night. And this is an assault on the checks and balances that governments have over the agencies of the federal government and that’s why we need to investigate it. Whether it was the Saudi arms sales, whether it was personal use, whether it is — there are some reports about, you know, hosting dinners that were really not within the per view of the secretary of the state at the State Department, whatever it was, the bottom line is, we need to get to the root cause of why the inspector general was fired.

AMANPOUR: So, you heard, you know, Mike Pompeo said it’s not about retaliation. You have called it an illegal act of retaliation. I mean, that’s presumably — you still say that, right? You think it’s a retaliation?

MENENDEZ: Absolutely. I’m convinced it is retaliation. Because, you know, I’ve read some of the comments that the secretary of state has made in response to this saying that Inspector General Linick wasn’t doing things the way that he would like him to or was obstructing the department’s mission. You know, the bottom line is, the inspector general’s supposed to be independent. He’s not supposed to do it the way the secretary of a department wants him to do it. He’s supposed to do it independently to understand whether or not that agency is functioning in the best interest of the American people in a clear, transparent and honest process. And so, when he says he wasn’t doing it the way the State Department would like, well obviously, if he’s investigating something that you don’t want to be investigated then ultimately, that’s the whole essence of why an inspector general exists.