Some Dem Appointees Fired by Trump Still Hanging On

Draining the swamp is a tough job that President Donald Trump is still trying to do, but it does not come without kicking, screaming, and relentless objection and obstruction.

Former President Joe Biden stacked the government with Democrats, including making some lame-duck period appointments in key positions, and those Trump is attempting to be cast off are not going away without fights, whether they expect to win or not, Politico reported Monday.

Democrat Biden holdovers heading up federal agencies have managed to remain in positions in defiance of Trump efforts to remove them, putting in legal challenges that tie up their removal even if "ultimately, the White House appears poised to win the fight," according to the report.

The defiance comes even as the Supreme Court continues to signal through its rulings that the president has the authority to turn over the administration for appointees to serve at the pleasure of the chief executive, Politico reported.

Some of the hangers-on have been given reprieve by lower-court rulings – by Democrat-appointed judges in some cases – managing to "maneuver around the White House's orders and directives," according to Politico.

Among the defiant Democrats are three fired members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that oversees PBS and NPR, including Diane Kaplan, Tom Rothman, and Laura Gore Ross. That trio has been active in motions and votes on the board despite the Trump administration calls for their removal.

Trump "exercised his lawful authority," according to White House spokesperson Harrison Fields to Politico, because CPB "is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime."

Also hanging on is the Biden-appointed chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Rochelle Garza, according the report.

The Democrats on the CPB, facing administration turnover, moved to change its bylaws to protect their place in the Trump administration by forcing their removals only after two-thirds approval from board members. With Biden-era appointees stacked in agencies like CPB, that renders Trump's authority to have people serving at his pleasure moot, Politico reported.

Among the other holdovers defying Trump's will and forcing court decisions are three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission fired in May and two Democrats on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) whom Trump sought to remove in January.

The White House had not responded to Politico's request for comment on the Biden Democrats refusing to leave the Trump administration.

The legal fights could help settle the issue going forward, according to former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland Don Kettl to Politico.

"I think some commissioners, as a matter of principle, are hanging on by their fingernails waiting for courts to decide, but also as a way of creating a series of legal challenges that forces them to frame the questions," Kettl said.

"It's a shadow-boxing match at this point. All sides are feeling each other out and trying to find a way to frame the ultimate legal questions in a way that's more likely to produce the results they want."

The CPB's changing of the bylaws was a tactic that has yet to be overcome by the Trump administration.

"Our bylaws prohibit any person, including the president of the United States, from removing a director without a two-thirds vote of the other directors," CPB chair Ruby Calvert said this month during a board meeting, Politico reported. "We will continue our mission, because the importance of a vibrant, independent public media system... is needed more now than ever."

The Trump administration and conservatives have long argued that PBS and NPR officials cannot claim be to "independent" since they are unilaterally Democrat or Democrat donors, as Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said during a House hearing this spring.