Fired Democrat FTC commissioner warns of the ‘corrupting influence of billionaires’

Former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya believes President Donald Trump’s decision to fire the agency’s two remaining Democratic members serves the interests of powerful billionaires rather than the American people. 

Speaking before the Colorado state legislature Wednesday, Bedoya said the dismissals would suppress fair market oversight and undermine the work of independent regulatory agencies.

“I think we need to be focused on the billionaires over President Trump’s shoulder at his inauguration and what this attempt will do for them,” Bedoya said. “Above all else, we need to be asking ourselves, who will win from this attempt to illegally remove us, and frankly, who will lose?”

Bedoya: Trump firing Democratic party-aligned commissioners is illegal  

As reported by Cryptopolitan on March 19, Bedoya and fellow Democratic Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter were fired on Tuesday evening, an action they have coined “illegal and unlawful.” Their removal appears to violate legal precedent that restricts a president from firing FTC commissioners without cause. 

The following day, in a CNBC interview, Slaughter cautioned that the dismissals breach government agencies’ ability to work independently.

“This isn’t just about the FTC, and it’s not about my job,” Slaughter said on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street. “This is about policing the ability of the FTC to police markets and ensure honest businesses are protected instead of allowing companies that lie and cheat to get ahead.”

Slaughter also asked if the firings could be extended to other independent agencies or if it was just a ploy to take out the liberals from the agency. “If I can be fired, I don’t know why Jerome Powell can’t be fired,” referring to the Federal Reserve chairman.

“As head of the executive branch, President Trump is vested with all of the executive power in our government,” said FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson, defending Trump’s decision. “I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove Commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government.”

Washington has not specified the reasons for the dismissals, but White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Trump is exercising his “lawful authority” to manage personnel. 

“President Trump will continue to rid the federal government of bad actors unaligned with his common sense agenda the American people decisively voted for,” Rogers remarked.

Is Trump protecting his tech friends?

Bedoya asserted that his firing may be linked to his statements on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos, along with other tech executives such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, stood behind Trump at his inauguration on January 20.

“I issued a statement criticizing Mr Bezos for working his people and warehouses so fast, so hard that they literally have to put up vending machines on the warehouse floor, dispensing and capping the amount of painkillers each of those workers has to get,” Bedoya told Colorado lawmakers.

Mr. Bezos, when I think about “free markets and personal liberties” I don’t think about the Post editorial page. I think about this vending machine in an Amazon Fulfillment Center, which is stocked not with chips but with painkillers. https://t.co/emxXutsDzP pic.twitter.com/R1pMOHz3Aj

— Alvaro Bedoya (@BedoyaFTC) February 28, 2025

Although he didn’t directly accuse Bezos of having influenced his dismissal, Bedoya said the timing of his firing was “interesting.”  

“I’m not alleging that this was why I was fired, but I think it’s an interesting coincidence.”

The FTC has also been investigating Amazon, Meta, and X, which the ex-commissioner revealed he had been working on.

“I stress an uncomfortable fact, which is that the issue of the corrupting influence of money in politics, I don’t think, is limited to one party. So I think we need to take a step back and ask ourselves, who will win from this effort to remove us?” he inquired.

Bipartisan concerns and the Senate pushback

More than two dozen Democratic senators have called on Trump to reinstate the fired commissioners. In a letter signed on Tuesday by Senators Amy Klobuchar, Dick Durbin, and Maria Cantwell, among others, they argued that Trump is ignoring the FTC’s independence.

“This action contradicts Congress’s constitutional authority to create bipartisan, independent commissions and upends more than 110 years of work at the FTC to protect consumers from deceptive practices and monopoly power,” the senators wrote. “We urge you to rescind these dismissals so the FTC can get back to the people’s work.”

Still, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt swatted away concerns about any legal repercussions, saying the removals were well within the US president’s authority.

“They were given ample notice in a letter that I believe your outlet reported on,” Leavitt reckoned. 

When asked if the administration’s goal was to overturn the 1935 Supreme Court ruling that protects the independence of commissions, she responded, “The goal was to let these individuals go. If we have to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, we certainly will.”

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