'Watchdogs' Gives Insider's Look at Role of Inspector General

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KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Inspectors general have been called the most powerful public officials you’ve never heard of. They work inside federal agencies, exposing corruption and ferreting out waste, fraud and abuse. But they’re also vulnerable to removal at the whim of the president. Glenn Fine was the inspector general of the Department of Justice in the Clinton, Bush and Obama Administrations. He was also the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense from 2016 until 2020, when he was replaced by former President Trump as part of a series of firings that the Washington Post called a “slow-motion Friday night massacre.” We talk to Fine about the role inspectors general play in holding the federal government to account and why he thinks they need more protection. Fine’s new book is “Watchdogs.” Guests: Glenn Fine, inspector general, Department of Justice (2000-2011); acting inspector general, Department of Defense (2016-2020) - author, "Inspectors General and the Battle for Honest and Accountable Government" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Every runner knows the moment when everything clicks.
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1:06.0	From KQBD in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim. Coming up on forum, Glenn Fine has served under four presidents from Clinton to Trump as Inspector General of the Department of Justice, an acting inspector general of the Defense Department.
1:16.1	He launched high-profile investigations, including the treatment of post-9-11 detainees and corruption in the U.S. Navy.
1:23.4	In his new book, Watchdogs, Fine gives readers insight into the IG's often unsung rule
1:29.3	of holding the federal government to account and shares why that oversight is perhaps needed now more than ever.
1:36.5	Forum is next'm Mina Kim.
	...

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