(CNN) President Donald Trump fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community, late on a Friday night amid the coronavirus pandemic in hopes that you wouldn't know what he did. Or you'd note it in passing, and then quickly move on to other pressing worries like, well, the coronavirus and its impact on the US economy.

You absolutely should not do either of those things. Because, while the removal of the intelligence community's watchdog is less obviously urgent in your own life than coronavirus, the mentality that informs the decision to remove Atkinson is hugely corrosive to our American system of government.

Let's go through the basics.

On Friday night -- the favored night for politicians to dump their worst news -- Trump announced he had fired Atkinson.

"As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as President, have the power of appointment ... it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general," Trump wrote in a letter to the House and Senate Intelligence committees informing them of the move. "That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General."

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