Within days of taking office, President Trump fired more than 17 inspectors general across the federal government.

It's already resulted in a lawsuit challenging the legality of the dismissals and continued protests outside federal agency buildings,

like outside the Department of Health and Human Services today.

Our White House correspondent, Lar Barone Lopez, has more.

Jeff, eight of those fired inspectors general

are now suing the Trump administration,

seeking to be reinstated to their positions.

These independent government watchdogs

are a key check on waste, fraud, and abuse.

To discuss the impact, I'm joined by two of the top watchdogs fired by the president,

Christy Grimm, former Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services,

and Robert Storch, former Inspector General for the Department of Defense.

Thank you both for being here with me today.

You were both fired on a Friday night, and the White House said that it was terminating you

in other IGs due to changing priorities. Rob, did that language stick out to you?

It did. It's a great question. Because, you know, administrations come and go, right? And they all

have their own priorities. And that's fine. Elections have consequences. IGs, however, are nonpartisan,

independent watchdogs. So whatever the priorities of the administration may be, we do independent

oversight to look for waste, fraud, and abuse, and to ensure that the programs and operations

of the departments we oversee are economical, that they're efficient, that they're

effective. So that's stuck out from the very beginning.

Christy, your and Rob's inspector's general offices are two of the largest across the federal

...