Last night, Donald Trump fired Sally Yates, the acting Attorney General of the United States, because she refused to defend his Muslim ban in court. Afterwards, lots of Republicans said Trump had done the right thing, and yet many of those same GOPers had said nothing but nice things about Yates in 2015 when she was confirmed to be Deputy Attorney General.
One of the main champions of Yates was the current nominee to be the next Attorney General, Jeff Sessions.
Flashback to 2015: Sessions asked Yates if she would be willing to tell President Obama “no” if he asked for “something improper.”
Yates replied:
“The Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General has an obligation to follow the law and the constitution and to give their independent legal advice to the president.”
Here’s the exchange:
Amazing. Sally Yates at her confirmation hearing answering her job-ending Q. Look who's asking. Via @charles_gaba pic.twitter.com/3Vsf9UugIu
— Not Individual-1 (@yottapoint) January 31, 2017
Another senator who took part in the confirmation hearings for Yates later called her a “hero” who possessed “impeccable integrity.”
Yet when Yates followed what she felt the Constitution says regarding Donald Trump’s ban on Muslim refugees from seven countries, she suddenly went from hero to goat in the minds of many Republicans. Amazing how two years and control of Washington can change opinions, isn’t it?
Yates was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 86-12, and the two Senators from her home state of Georgia heaped praise upon her, with Johnny Isakson commenting:
“She is a lady of impeccable taste, impeccable integrity and an impeccable record.”
Georgia Senator David Perdue had this to say about Yates:
“For years, she has prosecuted the most violate criminal organizations in Georgia, MS-13, and other notorious gangs, drug cartels, human smuggling, sex traffickers. The people in Georgia were fortunate to have benefited from Ms .Yates’s work in the service of justice for so many years.”
But now that Yates dared to defy Donald Trump and President Steve Bannon, Isakson and Perdue are oddly silent, not rising to her defense. In other words, they’re acting like gutless cowards, along with all of their Republican colleagues in both houses of Congress.
Sally Yates followed her heart and the Constitution. That makes her a hero in my book. Then again, I’m not a lying, spineless weasel like the vast majority of the GOP.
Featured Image Via NBC News
