Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany referenced a 2017 Washington Post article detailing bureaucratic resistance to President Donald Trump’s administration after former Obama official Marie Harf criticized recent layoffs of government employees.

The exchange took place during a discussion on Outnumbered on Monday, where McEnany highlighted reports of some federal employees refusing to leave their positions “out of spite.”

The layoffs stem from Trump’s January 20 executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by rebranding the United States Digital Service.

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The order also expanded the commission’s responsibilities, leading to workforce reductions in various federal agencies.

McEnany explained that federal employees generally fall into three categories: political appointees who support government reform, career employees focused on their work regardless of administration, and those who actively resist change based on political preferences.

“I do think that federal employees fall into three buckets. You have the political appointees, some of whom are thrilled that this is happening, they see this as a revolution in government,” McEnany said.

“Then you have this other pot of hardworking federal government employees, I think they don’t care who the president is, I think they care deeply about their job and that pot does exist, but that is not all federal workers.”

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She then cited reports of some federal employees remaining in their positions simply to defy the administration.

“There are federal workers that have this attitude, this was an NBC anonymous communication that came to them, I saw this a few weeks ago, a federal employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs, ‘A lot of us are going to stay out of spite,’ they said,” McEnany stated.

“‘We’re here for however long we want to be here. I could be here until retirement in 30 years, the Trump Administration is only here for four.’ What’s wrong with trying to root out employees staying out of spite?”

Marie Harf, a former spokesperson for the Obama administration, pushed back against McEnany’s argument, questioning the legality of the layoffs.

She criticized DOGE for what she described as “attacks on public servants” and argued that the firings were harming American workers.

“DOGE isn’t managing these people and at the same time, people across the country can’t pay their mortgages or put food on the table for their kids because they got fired from a job they thought had job security,” Harf said. “That is not electorally or morally a good plan, I think, for Republicans.”

Despite Harf’s objections, a federal judge ruled on Friday that layoffs at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) could proceed, dismissing a lawsuit filed by two unions representing agency employees.

McEnany responded to Harf by pointing to a Washington Post article from Trump’s first term, which described efforts by federal employees to resist his policies from within government agencies.

“It’s easy to oversimplify and point to some stories of individuals who got termination notices, but the background is this: This is not a Republican newspaper, conservative newspaper, this is The Washington Post… years ago: ‘Resistance From Within The Federal Government,’” McEnany said.

She then read from the article:

“Listen to this, less than two weeks into the Trump Administration, federal workers are in regular consultation with recently departed Obama-era political appointees about what they can do to push back against the new president’s initiatives. There was even a support group that took place about how to resist the Trump Administration. That should not happen. That is undermining the will of the American people.”

McEnany’s reference to the Washington Post article underscored concerns about unelected government employees using their positions to obstruct an elected president’s agenda.

The debate over federal workforce reductions is expected to continue as the Trump administration moves forward with efforts to restructure agencies through DOGE.

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