Gregg Nunziata on the Government Shutdown on The Times Radio

Gregg Nunziata joined The Times Radio on a recent broadcast to warn that the administration is pushing aggressive claims of presidential “inherent authority” during the government shutdown — including the power to fire federal employees at scale.

“In theory, the president should not have greatly enhanced authorities to fire during a shutdown. But … White House lawyers and the president’s staff have been sketching out really aggressive claims about the president having inherent authority to take care of these kinds of emergency situations, and one of which would be to fire at scale. There will no doubt be a lawsuit.”

Nunziata emphasized that even if lawsuits eventually overturn such actions, the immediate impact would be devastating.

He noted that shutdown brinkmanship now risks undermining the constitutional separation of powers itself: if presidents can ignore congressional appropriations or use a shutdown to purge agencies, the rule of law gives way to rule by executive fiat.

Watch the full clip here: