President Donald Trump has fired longtime Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.
Hayden was sacked in an email sent Thursday by Trent Morse, deputy director of presidential personnel.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately,” read the email, which was obtained by CBS News. “Thank you for your service.”
“The White House informed Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden that she has been relieved of her position,” the official said in an email.
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed Trump’s move, saying in a statement that the “unjust decision to fire Dr. Hayden in an email sent by a random political hack is a disgrace and the latest in his ongoing effort to ban books, whitewash American history, and turn back the clock.”
Hayden has been the Librarian of Congress since 2016. She was the first woman and African American to occupy this post.
“Personally, being a person of color, it means so much because people who look like me were forbidden by law to learn to read,” Hayden told CBS News in an interview in 2020. “That means so much that here is a person of color leading the world’s largest library.”
Before taking the post, she was CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1993 until 2016.
In his statement criticizing the move, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for the “position of Librarian of Congress” to be “appointed by a congressional commission” and “not by presidents that treat federal appointments like reality TV prizes.”
Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the ranking member on the Committee on House Administration, described the firing as an “ignorant decision” that “will impact America’s libraries, our copyrighted economic interests, and service to the American people by threatening support for Congress. His decision is a complete disgrace.”
She’s not the other official fired this week.
On his way out the door, the now-fired acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency defended its inadequate Biden-era disaster responses while taking some verbal jabs at the Trump administration.
Cameron Hamilton was called to the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he was dismissed by Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Troy Edgar and Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser to President Trump, Politico.
The dismissal came just one day after Hamilton testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee, during which he appeared to contradict recent statements by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem regarding the possible elimination of FEMA and shifting funding for the agency to state-level emergency management, a move that Trump has been openly considering.
“I do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Hamilton said at the hearing on Wednesday.
FEMA’s press office confirmed Hamilton’s dismissal, Politico said.
“Effective today, David Richardson is now serving as the Senior Official Performing the duties of the FEMA Administrator,” a spokesperson said in an email while referencing the assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office. “Cameron Hamilton is no longer serving in this capacity.”
Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL, contemplated resigning about two months ago as the new Trump administration was taking shape, until FEMA staff urged him to remain, Politico said, quoting an anonymous source.
Shortly after taking office, Trump’s DHS fired four FEMA officials for an “egregious” payment to illegal immigrants.
DHS officials told Fox News that “four employees are being fired today for circumventing leadership and unilaterally making the egregious payment for hotels for migrants in New York City.”
