Social Security Commissioner, Andrew Saul Fired. Plans to SUE
On Friday fired Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul, according to the former commissioner. On Monday morning he said he wouldn’t leave because his term isn’t over.
As one of the few remaining left overs form the Trump administration, The White House confirmed to Fox News and other news outlets that it terminated Saul’s employment after he refused a request to resign.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Saul said he “received an email from the White House Personnel Office on Friday morning saying he was fired.” However, Saul added that “he will not leave his post, challenging the legality of the Biden administration’s decision to remove him.”
“This was the first I or my deputy knew this was coming,” Saul told the newspaper, referring to the email. “It was a bolt of lightning no one expected. And right now it’s left the agency in complete turmoil.”
His last month of employment was set to end in January 2025
“I consider myself the term-protected Commissioner of Social Security,” he said, calling his ouster a “Friday Night Massacre” and an “abuse” of power.
The White House also released a statement on the decision, alleging that Saul—a longtime GOP donor—“politicized” the Social Security Administration.
From the White House – “Since taking office, Commissioner Saul has undermined and politicized Social Security disability benefits, terminated the agency’s telework policy that was utilized by up to 25 percent of the agency’s workforce, not repaired SSA’s relationships with relevant Federal employee unions including in the context of COVID-19 workplace safety planning, reduced due process protections for benefits appeals hearings, and taken other actions that run contrary to the mission of the agency and the President’s policy agenda,” in a statement to Fox News and other news outlets in confirming the decision.
Naturally Republican’s went to defend him,
“This removal would be an unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wrote in a tweet.
I agree with @ChuckGrassley. This removal would be an unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration. https://t.co/Y33G4YoZKf
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) July 9, 2021
Republicans slammed the firing, with Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell describing the removal as “an unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration.”
Social Security Commissioner Saul has bipartisan backing / I’m hrg Pres Biden may oust him which wld b outrageous Saul was confirmed by Senate in 2019 w a vote of 77 to 16 to 6yr term that doesn’t expire til January 19, 2025/ DONT POLITICIZE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMIN
Social Security Commissioner Saul has bipartisan backing / I’m hrg Pres Biden may oust him which wld b outrageous Saul was confirmed by Senate in 2019 w a vote of 77 to 16 to 6yr term that doesn’t expire til January 19, 2025/ DONT POLITICIZE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMIN
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 9, 2021
“President Biden is overtly politicizing the SSA,” Grassley said in a statement. “People don’t want their retirement and benefits politicized, they just want an agency that works. We had that under Commissioner Saul.”
But Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee overseeing the agency, said his removal was necessary. “They’ve been trying to destroy Social Security,” he wrote on Twitter of his firing.
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