Hampton Dellinger Interviewed by Rachel Maddow
"Don't go too far [away]," Rachel Maddow tells my brother. "The country needs you."
Now, some might say I’m not objective on the topic of Hampton Dellinger, since I love and admire my brother with all my heart.
However, since I am also one of the few people to have nearly come to blows with Dellinger over topics as varied as backseat space; control of the TV remote; backyard basketball; top-bunk rights; division of popcorn; lawn mowing; and more, a case could be made that I am more clear-eyed than most.
The fact is, from youth, up to this weighty moment, my brother, Hamp, has always been a person, leader, and public servant of immense integrity, fairness, brilliance, talent, considerateness, principle, impartiality, energy, vision, and fortitude.
For my brother, standing up for what’s right—following the law—and standing up for the Constitution, is as clear as the water that flows from the Old Well in Chapel Hill.
Yesterday, my brother ended his month-long confrontation with the Trump administration over the improper attempt to ouster him from his post as head of the Office of Special Counsel—an independent office, which for 50 years has supported government whistleblowers and protected them from retaliation and firing.
Below is an excerpt from his statement yesterday. (Read Dellinger’s full statement HERE.)
“My fight to stay on the job was not for me, but rather for the ideal that OSC should be as Congress intended: an independent watchdog and a safe, trustworthy place for whistleblowers to report wrongdoing and be protected from retaliation. Now I will look to make a difference -- as an attorney, a North Carolinian, and an American — in other ways.
I’m stopping the fight because, yesterday, circuit court judges reviewing the trial court decision in my favor granted the government’s request that I be removed from office while the case continues. This new ruling means that OSC will be run by someone totally beholden to the President for the months that would pass before I could get a final decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
I think the circuit judges erred badly because their willingness to sign off on my ouster — even if presented as possibly temporary — immediately erases the independence Congress provided for my position, a vital protection that has been accepted as lawful for nearly fifty years. Until now. And given the circuit court’s adverse ruling, I think my odds of ultimately prevailing before the Supreme Court are long. Meanwhile, the harm to the agency and those who rely on it caused by a Special Counsel who is not independent could be immediate, grievous, and, I fear, uncorrectable.
I strongly disagree with the circuit court’s decision, but I accept and will abide by it. That’s what Americans do.”
—Statement by Hampton Dellinger (March 6, 2025)
Rachel Maddow Interviews Hampton Dellinger
Yesterday, Rachel Maddow hosted Hampton for an exclusive, one-on-one interview.
WATCH the INTERVIEW: HERE.
In her introduction, Maddow said the following:
“In all of these fights against what appear to be these illegal mass firings, and these efforts to unilaterally close down and turn off parts of the government, the materially most-consequential one of all of them is one that was obtained because of one man, whose name is Hampton Dellinger.
Trump tried to fire him in the first week in February. Mr. Dellinger fought it immediately. He fought it long enough and hard enough that, while he was able to retain his post—thanks to a judge’s order—still under fire from Trump, he succeeded in enlisting the Merit Systems Protection Board to reverse thousands of baseless firings of so-called probationary employees. Among the direct results of what Hampton Dellinger did are more than 5000 people at USDA who yesterday were told they must be reinstated to their jobs.
Hampton Dellinger today himself announced that he is ending his one-man fight to stay at his post at the Office of Special Counsel, which looks after whistleblower rights; which looks after the rights of government employees to not be fired for corrupt or improper reasons. He left that job today after an appeals court ruling basically made clear that he must.
But take him as a case study here, because his one-man, one-month fight to not go quietly saved the jobs of thousands of people who were improperly fired by Trump. And that fight set the bar, and set the tone, for what it means to refuse to go quietly. And to make as much good trouble as you can, every single day that you can, for as long as you can.
Joining us now for his first interview since ending this fight is Hampton Dellinger. He’s now the former head of the Office of Special Counsel. Mr. Dellinger, it’s really nice to meet you. Thank you for being here.”
—Rachel Maddow, “The Rachel Maddow Show,” (March 6, 2025)
Midway through the interview, Rachel Maddow stated:
“What you have seen about what it means to fight—it’s part of the reason I wanted to talk to you tonight. Because you embody an example here of what it is to stand up and put your name as the plaintiff on that suit against the government, to stand up for the way the American people ought to be treated. We very rarely ask individual human beings to say, I, the named plaintiff, am here to stand up for the people against the government that is mistreating them. And it takes something.”
At the end of the interview, Maddow concluded with these remarks:
“Hampton Dellinger; as of today the former head of the Office of Special Counsel, and somebody whose story is going to be told for a very long time, because of what you did and because of its effects. I know you have some wounds to lick, and you need, probably, some rest, but don’t go too far. The country needs you.”
“I know you have some wounds to lick, and you need, probably, some rest, but don’t go too far. The country needs you.”
—Rachel Maddow to Hampton Dellinger (March 6, 2025)
WATCH the INTERVIEW: HERE.
THANK YOU, HAMP, for your courageous and principled stand for the independence of government oversight agencies and Inspectors General; for the Constitution; for the Rule of Law; and for the rights of workers.
May we all show as much commitment to maintaining and defending our democracy—for all people, and for our posterity.
Friday Night News Dump:
