Some Republican senators have expressed concern about the decision of President Donald Trump on Friday to dismiss the head of the Office of Labor Statistics hours after the release of the Jobs Report of July.
Several Republicans told NBC News that they would disagree with the dismissal of Erika Mtntarfer, the BLS commissioner, if it is the result that Trump does not like job report numbers, which showed the United States labor market in recent months, has been considerably weaker than what was previously thought.
Trump defended his decision on Friday, saying without evidence that the report numbers were “false” and accused Mtientefer of releasing favorable jobs before the elections to give an advantage to former vice president Kamala Harris.
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Senator Cynthia Lummis, R-Wy., Said that if the data is not reliable, the public should find out, but shoot the commissioner before knowing if the numbers are inaccurate is “a bit impetuous.”
“If the president is shooting the statistic because he does not like numbers, but they are precise, then that is a problem,” Lummis said. “It is not the blame of the statistic if the numbers are precise and that they are not what the president expected.”
Senator Thom Tillis, Rn.C., criticized Trump’s decision to fire Mtiente also.
“If they finished saying goodbye because the president or who decided to say goodbye to the director did it because they did not like the numbers, they should grow,” Tillis said.
Tillis announced in June that he does not intend to run for re -election, one day after opposing the “Great Beautiful Law” of Trump, and subsequently attracting the anger of the president, including a threat to support a main challenge against the senator.
Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Ky.
“We have to look for objective statistics somewhere. When people who provide statistics are fired, make it much harder to issue judgments that you know, statistics will not be politicized,” Paul said.
“I will investigate it, but the first impression is that you really cannot make the numbers different or better when shooting the people who count,” he added.
Paul also opposed the “great bill” Big Beautiful “by Trump in June. The senator said in June that, due to his vocal opposition, he was not invited from an annual white house picnic in the weeks prior to the vote on the internal policy package. However, Trump later said Paul and his family were invited.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaaska, said she can’t trust work numbers, and “that is the problem.”
“And when you shoot people, make people trust them even less,” he said.
The Democratic senators have also spoken against Mtntarfer’s layoffs, with the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., accusing Trump of acting as “someone who imitates authoritarian leaders” during comments on the Senate floor on Friday.
Senator Bernie Sanders, i-vt., Called the measure “the sign of an authoritarian type” and added: “What that means is that, I think that the US people will find it difficult to believe the information that comes out of the government, because Trump will always want it to be great news, and when that happens, it is difficult for us to deal with the problems, because we do not know what is happening.”
Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, was one step further, calling Mtientfer’s dismissal “the thing of fascist dictatorships.”
The former BLS commissioner, William Beach, whom Trump designated for the position and was confirmed By the Senate in 2019, he made a position in X calling Mtientefer’s shots “totally without foundation”, “a dangerous precedent” and undermine “the statistical mission of the office”.
A declaration of “The Friends of the Bureau of Labor Statistics”, co-filmed by Beach, said the precision of the office of the office and of Mcentofer specifically.
“The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid interference opportunities. The BLS uses the same proven, transparent and reliable process to produce estimates every month. Each month, BLS reviews employment estimates from the previous two months to reflect more slow and more precise information,” said the statement.
“BLS operates as a federal statistical agency and autonomy is granted to ensure that the data you publish are as precise as possible,” he added.
