One military veteran who lost his job due to President Donald Trump's mass firings may soon be announcing a run for Congress — against the lawmaker whose staff he says refused to help him.
On Tuesday, CNN host Pamela Brown interviewed Terry Uniter, who is a retired U.S. Army veteran working as a contractor. Uniter was initially hired to be the international relations lead for the Fifth Air Force, which he said he accepted out of a sense of duty despite it coming with a $60,000 pay cut. He shipped his belongings to Tokyo, pulled his son out of school and prepared to move to the other side of the world with his family. But on the day before he was set to fly out, Uniter said he was jerked around by threats to his job.
"I verified three times with United States forces, Japan and the hiring people, OPM [Office of Personnel Management]: 'Hey, am I good to proceed to station?' And I was told, 'hey, you're good to go.' And then at the last moment, 24 hours before flying to Japan, they told me, 'hey, that exemption that we thought that you had, it's not good,'" Uniter told Brown. "And to make it worse, 12 hours before flying, they contacted me again to say, well, actually, we had our wires crossed. You're good to proceed. And then five hours before flying, they were like, 'hey, remember what we just told you, like a few hours ago? We're sorry. Actually, you're still not good to come.'"
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Uniter said that even though all of his possessions are currently on a boat to Japan, he was at least able to get his car back before it was loaded. However, he put his home up for rent, and says his family is now sleeping on the floor and living out of a suitcase. The retired Army veteran told CNN that while he has since been re-offered the position, he is declining due to the instability of the hiring process. He added that while military personnel in both the U.S. and Japan have been advocating on his behalf, he felt "extremely disappointed" in his congressman, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.)
"I called up his office, and [his staff] told me, 'what do you want me to do about it?' ... There's protests going in Maryland because evidently, everybody's getting the same answer from his office," Uniter said. "You're my elected official, you can advocate on my behalf ... So if he's not willing to do his job then I will."
Uniter is now home-schooling his son after pulling him out of school, and emphasized that he's in a better position than most as he has his U.S. Army pension to live off of, whereas others who have lost their jobs to Trump's cuts don't have a similar safety net. He called on elected officials to not forget their "compassion" toward their constituents.
"There has to be some compassion. We are Americans," he said. "Parents love their children, but children should respect their parents. ... Doing blanket cuts is not the honest way to go in my opinion."
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Watch Uniter's segment below, or by clicking this link.