AP FACT CHECK: Trump attacks govt watchdogs on false grounds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Man bites watchdog.

In firing one inspector general, sidelining another and assailing a third, President Donald Trump in recent days has put his aversion to agents of federal accountability on stark display in a country consumed by the coronavirus.

Clearly displeased when inspectors general come to independent conclusions that don't fit the stories he tells, Trump employs a tactic to mar their credibility. If public servants worked for the government in the Obama era, they are subject to being painted as Obama loyalists out to get him.

And they're not insulated if they worked for Republican presidents, too, as the three targeted IGs found out.

So it went over the past week as Trump distorted key elements of the pandemic response and the few other political subjects that got any attention in the pandemic.

A look:

GOVERNMENT WATCHDOGS

TRUMP, on his decision to remove Glenn Fine, acting Defense Department inspector general who was tapped to lead a special oversight board of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package: “Well, we have IGs in from the Obama era." — news briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Fine is not a creature of the Obama era.

He is a career government official who had served both Republican and Democratic administrations and was selected by his peers for the virus oversight board. Trump distorts that record to make Fine and other public servants look like plants or holdovers from President Barack Obama.

Fine has been acting Pentagon inspector general for more than four years, and before that was inspector general at the Justice Department for a decade, including the entire duration of the George W. Bush administration. He now reverts to the position of principal deputy inspector general at the Pentagon.

Though inspectors general are...