President Joe Biden on Friday fired the head of the Social Security Administration. Andrew Saul, a Trump-appointee and wealthy anti-union GOP donor who is accused of working to delay millions of Americans’ stimulus checks, is refusing to leave.
“I consider myself the term-protected Commissioner of Social Security,” Saul said, dramatically calling his termination a “Friday Night Massacre.”
The Washington Post reports “he plans to be back at work on Monday morning, signing in remotely from his New York home.”
Saul claims he had no advance warning, despite calls from Democrats demanding his firing.
“It was a bolt of lightning no one expected. And right now it’s left the agency in complete turmoil.”
Any turmoil there might be would be the result of his refusal to exit his post after being fired. Biden has already named an acting commissioner.
“Since taking office,” the White House said in a statement, “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.”
Thanks to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision President Joe Biden has the power to fire certain political appointees who were previously thought to be protected from termination.
“SSA Administrator Andrew Saul’s firing by POTUS Joe Biden was obviously lawful under three recent conservative SCOTUS decisions. Live by the sword, die by the sword. What goes around comes around. End of discussion,” tweeted noted law professor Laurence Tribe.