On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that while he is not sure that all of the inspectors general that President Donald Trump fired should have been fired, he has rethought his initial negative assessment of the firings because, given how much money the federal government loses to fraud, it’s questionable how good of a job these inspectors general were doing as watchdogs.
Maher said, “I do know this, because this comes from the Government Accountability Office, that’s not the Trump administration, the federal government loses an estimated 233 to 521 billion annually to fraud.”
He continued, “So, when Trump fired, — the first thing he did [is fire] all the inspectors general. And I thought, well, that’s not good, that’s their job to watchdog stuff. But if you’re losing $521 billion a year, how good are you watchdogging? You’ve got to — I’m not saying we should have fired them.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
