President Donald Trump fired the two Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, leaving only two members of a five-person agency that is traditionally independent of the White House.
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya disclosed the firings, and both called the move “illegal.” The agency has been tasked for over a century with promoting competition and protecting consumers from unfair business practices.
“Why? Because I have a voice. And he is afraid of what I’ll tell the American people,” Slaughter said in a statement referring to Trump. “Removing opposition voices may not change what the Trump majority can do, but it does change whether they will have accountability when they do it.”
