22 months ago, Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions grilled Sally Quillian Yates, President Barack Hussein Obama’s nominee for deputy attorney general. Senator Sessions exhorted nominee Yates to say no to illegal and unconstitutional orders on immigration from the President:
Sessions: You have to watch out, because people will be asking you to do things that you just need to say no about. Do you think the attorney general has a responsibility to say no to the president if he asks for something that’s improper? A lot of people defended the [Loretta] Lynch nomination by saying well, [then-President Obama] appoints somebody who’s going to execute his views. What’s wrong with that? But if the views that the president wants to execute are unlawful, should the attorney general or the deputy attorney general say no?
Yates: Senator, I believe that 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 [Senator Jeff Sessions and nominee Sally Yates, Senate confirmation hearing, 2015.03.24, as transcribed by Vox.com, 2017.01.31].
Yesterday, Interim Attorney General Yates said no to enforcing the President’s executive order banning immigration from seven Muslim countries, suspending refugee resettlement for 120 days, and suspending admittance of Syrian refugees indefinitely. Yates wrote, “I am not convinced that the Executive Order is lawful.” Hours later, the President fired Yates, skipped three people in the order of succession established by valid Presidential executive order less than three weeks ago, and named submissive U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Dana Boente to fill the post until the confirmation of the President’s choice for Attorney General… Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
Take a good look at that video, Jeff.
How many times did Alberto Gonzalez tell dumbass dubya no? Drumpf and dumbass have/had a need to surround themselves with butt kissing yes people to add some shade to their shady, unconstitutional deeds.
Past time to clean this WH up.
Nothing like upholding the U.S. Constitution to get you fired by this maniac in the White House.
Mansplaining … Big mistake to allow Sessions on board.
STATES FIGHT BACK … Hagig v. Trump et al, case no. 1:17-cv-00289, was electronically filed at 8:40 a.m. today with the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, in Denver, Colorado.
I have joined with another local attorney, Alan Kennedy-Shaffer pro bono in filing a Colorado suit against Donald Trump and the relevant parties to challenge the Executive Order on the basis of discrimination based on country of origin and religion, and violation of the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process of the 5th & 14th Amendment. Please understand what a courageous Plaintiff it takes to be the named party to challenge this. #resist – Ms. Morgan Carroll
The swamp continues to fill, and the alligators are thriving. Neil Gosuch, potential Supreme Court pick, is a second generation Republican crook. His mom was Reagan’s EPA head. Anne Gorsuch lasted 2 years almost, presiding over the most corrupt period for the EPA. A lot of her upper management went to prison. She barely escaped that fate.
Republicans were up in arms against presidential executive order overreach – until they weren’t.
I’ve seen a couple articles now saying she should have resigned. That she told the Justice Department not to defend the EO because of her personal beliefs which means it was right to fire her.
“At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities, nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful,” Ms. Yates wrote in a letter to Justice Department lawyers.(from NYTimes).
I’ve read her whole letter and I think she did the right thing and was well within her rights as AG.
What do you all think?
Could Uncle Drumpf’s goons use gubmint records to track down and deport legal immigrants who use food stamps? Not in America, you say? http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/new-draft-trump-executive-order-could-be-used-to-deport-legal-immigrants-for-using-food-stamps-report/
I read where Drumpf’s ban violates five parts of the constitution. What I wasn’t clear on was who said that. It might have been Elizabeth Warren or it might have been Attorney Malia Litman.
https://malialitman.com/2017/01/31/where-are-senate-republicans-as-our-constitution-is-under-attack/
Somehow this story makes little sense to me. Sessions can easily stand by the position that the AG should at times say no to a President. The problem I see is that Sessions is reportedly behind almost every policy that Trump is advancing so there will never be a reason for Sessions to say no to Trump.
And it is hard to argue with a President’s authority to dismiss an appointee, after all isn’t the AG appointee an “at will” employee in a “right to work” nation?
The U.S. Social Security Administration estimated that in 2013 undocumented immigrants—and their employers—paid $13 billion in payroll taxes alone for benefits they will never get. They can receive schooling and emergency medical care, but not welfare or food stamps.
http://www.tolerance.org/immigration-myths
Trump’s firing of Yates has shades of Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre in the falls of 1973.
By the fall of 1974 Nixon was run out of office by his own party.
Do we have any hope of this happening to Trump?
The problem with waiting a whole year to impeach or oust Trump is the damage he will inflict in meantime.
@Roger Cornelius: “Trump’s firing of Yates has shades of Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre in the falls of 1973.”
No it doesn’t, not in the least. AG Elliot Richardson and Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus both resigned (weren’t fired) to protest Nixon’s order to fire Special Proscecutor Archibald Cox.
Why didn’t Nixon fire Cox? I’m glad you asked. Cox was appointed by Richardson and in appointing the special prosecutor, Richardson and Ruckelshaus had both promised the House Judiciary Committee that Cox could only be fired “for cause” which didn’t exist. Both resigned in protest. Nixon had no authority to fire the special prosecutor himself.
Trump needed no cause to fire Yates since she was serving at the pleasure of the President. If Yates felt she could no longer do her job then she should have resigned but she opted for political theater instead.
Yates stuck around so there would be one adult in the Drumpf cluster bureaucracy, however short it lasted. Now they are leaderless, rudderless and clueless.
@Porter Lansing: “The U.S. Social Security Administration estimated that in 2013 undocumented immigrants—and their employers—paid $13 billion in payroll taxes alone for benefits they will never get.”
Social Security and Medicare are pay as you go programs. The Supreme Court has ruled that there are no property or contractual rights conveyed by paying these taxes. There are thousands of US citizens that don’t see a dime of benefits because they die before reaching the entitlement ages when they can start collecting benefits. I suppose you can say that the loss of the taxes is the price the illegal immigrant pays for being here illegally. Let me work up some Chuckie Schumer crocodile tears.
Dr B- my opinion is if it gives right wing nutters even a scrimption of heart burn, it is well worth the cost.
Yates refusal to uphold the rule of law and do her sworn duty should result in her disbarment.
If she could point to a credible analysis of some part of the EO that was a violation of black-letter statute law, SCOTUS case law, or the Constitution, and then she said she was not going to enforce the law for those reasons, then she would have a foot on which to stand.
She cited no such support for her opinion. She just voiced an opinion that tried to cloak her in moral superiority.
Sorry, that’s not an action supported by the job description.
Coyote said “If Yates felt she could no longer do her job then she should have resigned but she opted for political theater instead.”
Her job, as even Senator Sessions recognized at one time, is not to rubber stamp or carry out the dictates of the President. Her job is to carry out the laws and Constitution of the USA. I thought this was the mantra of conservatives.
Since she had a good faith belief that Trump’s EO violated the Constitution, she was bound by her oath not to try to enforce an unlawful order. She did not feel that “she could no longer do her job.” Thus, she needn’t have resigned.
This was a massacre. In the same way that Nixon tried to force the canning of the special prosecutor, Trump is installing someone in to the cabinet that will enforce his view of the law over the AG’s own good faith belief. Trump’s action is arguably worse because he fired the acting AG while Nixon’s people resigned of their own accord.
Trump had the legal right to replace the acting AG for any reason except for a bad reason. Firing the AG for not agreeing to uphold his acts that are violations of the Constitution is a bad reason.
Coyote, I didn’t ask why Nixon didn’t fire Cox, you asked yourself that.
I don’t need Watergate history lessons lifted from Wikipedia.
My comment about shades of Nixon are indeed on target as Darin explains so well. Nixon pressured his cabinet to pressure others to resign or be fired, including multiple FBI directors, all to protect his lies.
Trump has barely gotten started and is following a Nixon pattern. How many more in the Trump administration in the coming years will be terminated or be forced to resign for standing up to this lying bigot?
After a scarce two weeks in office, Trump and Bannon have left enough carnage and destruction that this nation will not be able to heal from.
Jeebus, even uber liberal law professor Alan Dershowitz says Yates “made a political decision rather than a legal one”.
Yes, Coyote, we shouldn’t have taken Trump at his word when he said he was going to ban Muslims from coming into the country.
Senior management at the State Department have already resigned.
There is danger in assigning motives to actions when we really don’t know. Dershowitz should know better.
Derpowitz changed considerably when dumbass dubya was appointed Potus. Maybe Cheney threatened to extraordinarily render him in Nazi Germany.
All the cry babying might as well be over. Trump is moving faster than the democrats, republicans and media can react. He is pushing forward with the agenda of the people and there have been no surprises. Everything he promised the people he is making happen. I understand folks being upset but the majority of the people in the Nation are upset. Suck it up and Buck up. The ride to individual independence and the end of globalization is nigh.
OLdSargeBaby … Individual independence? Without the group you’d be unable to function within a year. Liberty and independence are words used by those attempting to justify their fear of growth and change. USA was formed as a group. We fought the British as a group. We fought Hitler as a group. We rose from the depression as a group. Wanting to wallow in the benefits of our group and claim disdain for us is simply selfishness. Fool.
Drumpf hasn’t drained the swamp, he has increased it bigly. He hasn’t made America great. He hasn’t made America safe. He has not built a meter of the wall. He hasn’t hired the best people. He hasn’t got the economy rolling or growing. He hasn’t divested any of his businesses. He hasn’t thrown HRC in jail. He hasn’t told the truth once. He hasn’t deported all immigrants. He hasn’t made Mexico pay for the wall he hasn’t built. He hasn’t saved jobs. He hasn’t decreased unemployment. He hasn’t immediately repealed Obamacare or replaced it. He isn’t a smart person. He hasn’t released his taxes. He is costing America a fortune in Secret Service expenses plus costing NYC a million bucks a day for police, he hasn’t cut anyone’s taxes. He hasn’t destroyed ISIS completely. He hasn’t nuked anyone, yet. He hasn’t learned how government works. He can’t walk on water. He can’t stop whining about being the least popular Potus ever in record fashion.
This could go on forever with things Drumpf hasn’t done that he promised to.
Ol’ Sarge, Drumpf flat out lied to you and the entire freaking world when he claimed he would negotiate lower drug prices. So why am I ROTFLMAO at the lying liar with the dead animal on his head?
Yates was the only one in the Justice Department with authority to seek wiretaps to protect America from its enemies. Drumpf fixed that right nicely. Protecting America-from Drumpf should be our top concern.
Just what is that agenda thingy exactly old sarge? “He is pushing forward with the agenda of the people and there have been no surprises. Everything he promised the people he is making happen.” I blame your home schooling for your lack of understanding a democracy. You see any damn fool can start a fire in a building to destroy it. What makes a democracy work is work. You boys are clueless on what that work really is. Your rich leaders have not done a days work in their privileged lives and you boys think they are the same as you. Get a clue, you are poor white trash and they come from wealth, big difference.
Old Sarg, thanks anyway for at least acknowledging that “the majority of the people in the Nation are upset” at Trump’s election and policies. We all need to be reminded that Trump is our “minority President” by almost 3 million votes. Most of America disagrees with this individual and he is apparently the least liked new President in a long time according to polls.
DONALD TRUMP IS THE LEAST POPULAR PRESIDENT-ELECT IN MODERN HISTORY
Here is the above link: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/donald-trump-polls-least-popular-president-elect
The tough guy Flynn got all huffy with Iran when they shot off a missile. Then said it was all cool and we were gonna keep the nuke deal with them. We don’t have a choice, they buy airplanes and stuff like that, keeps the rich boys rich. We are what is called a paper tiger, we don’t have the guts to start a shoot’em up with Iran. Flynn and the gang, know they would make our military pay big time for the dance. Nothing to worry about with this crew and that is probably a good thing. Now at home, they will continue to burn down the building without a doubt. You cannot make America great again without going back 100 years to those great days of old.
Remember when Trump told us during his campaign that he had a secret plan to get rid of ISIS?
You know what that plan turned out to be?
He ordered the military to come up with a plan to get rid of ISIS.
That is like having a really big idea and it turns out that the really big idea is the really big idea.
jerry, I’m hearing that Trump is already becoming irritated with Flynn.
Apparently Trump thinks that Iran shooting off a missile should be a reason for a declaration of war
Roger, Trump has roids, watch how he walks, he is irritated at everything until he sits his fat arse down on a cushion. The only declaration of war is going to be against those who have no defense, the women, the immigrants, the disabled and the poor in general. He has successfully declared war on them in his first week, every thing else is typical Trump bull$#i+.