Sen. Kaine claims Trump will 'stiff' federal employees who take buyout offer: 'Do not be fooled'

The Trump administration is offering buyouts for nearly all federal employees, including those who work remotely, as part of the president's efforts to get employees back into the office, but they only have until Feb. 6 to opt-in. However, Kaine argued on the Senate floor Tuesday night that Trump has no such grounds to make that kind of deal. 

"The federal employees received an interesting email at the end of the day today.... that said, from the administration, if you tender your resignation by next Friday, we will guarantee you payment through the end of September whether or not you show up for work. So tender your resignation and then boy, it's just going to be a gravy train, you are just going to get paid for seven months without working," Kaine said. 

"The president has no authority to make that offer. There's no budget line item to pay people who are not showing up for work. This is a guy who made this promise to contractors again and again and again when he was a private business guy. 'Oh, come work for me on my casino.' 'Come work for me in a hotel.' 'We're going to do a handshake. We're going to do a contract.' The contractor does the work and then finds out they get stiffed," Kaine continued. 

"So my message to federal employees who receive this is, yeah, the president has tried to terrorize you for about a week and then gives you a little sweetheart offer: 'If you resign in the next week, we're just going to pay you for doing nothing for the next seven months.' Don't be fooled. He's tricked hundreds of people with that offer. If you accept that offer and resign, he'll stiff you just like he stiffed the contractors. He doesn't have any authority to do this. Do not be fooled by this guy," the Virginia Democrat also said. 

"American taxpayers pay for the salaries of federal government employees and therefore deserve employees working on their behalf who actually show up to work in our wonderful federal buildings, also paid for by taxpayers," Leavitt added Tuesday. 

"That's absolutely false. This is a suggestion to federal workers that they have to return to work. And if they don't, then they have the option to resign. And this administration is very generously offering to pay them for eight months," she said.  

Fox News' Greg Wehner and Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report.