Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump Suddenly licensed Congress librarian Carla Hayden as a White House continues to purge the federal government of people perceived to oppose the president and his program.
Hayden was informed in an email Thursday evening of the Blank Maison presidential office office, according to an email obtained by the Associated Press. Confirmed by the Senate at work in 2016Hayden was the first woman and the first African-American to be a librarian in the congress.
“Carla,” started email. “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I write to you to inform you that your position as a congress librarian is terminated immediately. Thank you for your service.” A spokesperson for the Congress Library confirmed that the White House told Hayden that she had been dismissed.
Hayden, whose 10 -year mandate was expected to expire next year, was being reaction from a Conservative advocacy group This had sworn to eliminate those who stand on the way to Trump’s agenda. The group, American accountability Foundation, accused it and other library leaders of promoting children’s books with “radical” content and literary material written by Trump opponents.
“The current #Librarianofcongress Carla Hayden is awakened, anti-Trump, and promotes trans-id children,” said AAF in his account X earlier on Thursday, just a few hours before the dismissal. “It’s time to get it out and hire a new guy for work!”
All around government, Trump eliminated officials who, according to him, do not line up with his agenda, from the Ministry of Justice to the Pentagon and beyond. Sometimes the layoffs come after conservative voices celebrate criticism officials.
Earlier Thursday, the Interim administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was expelled one day after testifying that he did not agree with the proposals to dismantle the organization. Trump suggested that individual states, not FEMA, should take the lead to respond to hurricanes, tornadoes and other crises.
At Pentagon, more than half a dozen The best general officers have been dismissed Since January, including the president of the heads of joint staff, General CQ Brown Jr. The only two women serving as four-star officers, as well as a disproportionate number of other higher officers, have also been dismissed.
The unexpected move against Hayden exasperated the Democrats from the Congress, who initially disclosed the dismissal.
“Enough, that’s enough,” said the Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer from New York, who called Hayden as “” pioneer, a scholar and a highest order “.
Connecticut representative Rosa Delauro, the best democrat of the Chamber’s credit committee, said Hayden had been “dismissed” by Trump and asked for an explanation of the administration to explain why she had been dismissed.
“Hayden has spent his whole career to serve people – to help children learn to read the protection of some of the most precious treasures in our country,” said representative Joseph Morelle in New York, the best democrat of the Chamber’s Administration Committee that supervises the library.
“He’s an American hero,” he said.
THE Congress LibraryWith his majestic buildings in front of the American Capitol, holds a vast collection of books and history of the nation, which he does Available to the public and legislators. It houses documents of nearly two dozen presidents and more than three dozen judges from the Supreme Court.
He also has collections of rare books, impressions and photographs, As well as music truns and precious artifacts – like a flute belonging to President James Madison, that the singer and Rapper Lizzo played In a performance in 2022 placed by Hayden.
Democratic leaders congratulated Hayden, who had been the long -standing leader of the Baltimore library system, for a mandate that has helped modernize the library and make more accessible With initiatives in rural and online communities. She graduated from Roosevelt University and the University of Chicago.
The chief of the minority of the Hakeem Jeffries room, Dn.y., applauded Hayden as “an accomplished, principle and distinguished librarian”.
“Donald Trump’s unfair decision to dismiss Dr. Hayden in an email sent by a random political hack is a shame and the last in his continuous effort to ban books, laundering American history and going back,” said Jeffries.
“The Congress Library is the popular library. There will be responsibility for this unprecedented assault against the American lifestyle as soon as possible,” he said.
New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, the best democrat in the Senate panel who oversees the library funding, said that the dismissal, which, according to him, came at 6:56 p.m., “took his assault on American libraries at a new level”.
“Dr. Hayden devoted his career to reading and looking for knowledge available to everyone,” he said.
Robert Newlen, the main assistant librarian, said that he would serve as an acting librarian from the “up to other instructions” in a separate email seen by the AP.
“I promise to keep everyone informed,” he wrote to colleagues.
Hayden recently explained how libraries changed his own life and opened it up to the world.
“Libraries are the great equalizer,” she published on X during the National Library Week last month.
“And when you have a free public library in particular,” she said, it is an “opportunity center for people from all walks of life, and you give them the opportunity to make choices on information, entertainment and inspiration means most for them.”
