'I intend to defend them': Senate Republican warns Trump against government purge

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), despite being a staunch Donald Trump ally, is warning the president-elect against any plan to go on a mass firing spree of government inspectors general.

In an interview with Politico, Grassley was asked whether Trump should do as some of his allies suggest and conduct a purge of inspectors general, who are responsible for investigating alleged wrongdoing in key executive branch agencies.

"No," Grassley replied. "He should not."

Grassley also indicated that he would not sit idly by should Trump go after the inspectors general, even though he remained mostly silent when Trump fired some of them during his first term.

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"I guess it’s the case of whether he believes in congressional oversight, because I work closely with all the inspector generals and I think I’ve got a good reputation for defending them," he said. "And I intend to defend them."

That said, it's also possible that Grassley is talking out of both sides of his mouth. As Politico notes, "last week, Grassley sent every inspector general in the federal government a demand for information about sexual harassment settlements involving employees of the watchdog offices," which "seemed to raise the possibility he could be gathering data that Trump’s team could use to target specific IG offices."