Preach, #SallyYates. Preach. pic.twitter.com/ND5jvY5DgS
— deray mckesson (@deray) May 8, 2017
Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired by the Trump administration after refusing to defend Donald Trump’s Muslim ban, is testifying in front of members of Congress today on Russian interference in the election, particularly with regard to Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn. Of course, things devolved from there into Republicans trying to discredit her, and she was not having any of their garbage.
Not only is Yates and accomplished lawyer, so arguing with her is not for the dim-witted, but she showed up for some Russia hearings and was instead treated to a retread of her actions with regard to the Muslim Ban, which was not going to fly. Above, you can see Senator Ted Cruz trying to point out a statute that seemingly gives Trump the power to implement the ban, but Yates points out that not only is that power mitigated by another statute, but none of it matters if those powers turn out to be unconstitutional.
Of course, Yates’ decision to instruct Department of Justice lawyers not to defend the ban was always going to be a point of contention, and it was based on the simple principal that if she honestly believed the ban was unconstitutional, she’d be shirking her duty to defend it. Senator John Cornyn tried to attack her along these lines, and he met a similar fate to Ted Cruz:
.@JohnCornyn attacks Yates’ credentials as a public servant for failing to defend Trump’s Muslim ban.
Yates CLEANS HIS CLOCK! Take a look: pic.twitter.com/yUjYlUlwxP
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) May 8, 2017
In case it wasn’t clear when she put her job on the line to stand up for the constitution, Sally Yates does not mess around, and despite how little most of her hearing has had to do with Russia, everyone’s really enjoying it anyway.
#SallyYates to Ted Cruz: "We're not talking about an interpretation of some arcane statute; we're talking about religious freedom." pic.twitter.com/HJzK7ysbVO
— Sarah Flourance (@BookishFeminist) May 8, 2017
#SallyYates has the face of a woman who has had to patiently explain things to men way too many times. pic.twitter.com/ZlXzwz2eGx
— Navah Wolfe (@navahw) May 8, 2017
Kennedy is seriously trying to mansplain the law to Sally Yates, a former acting Attorney General. 😒
— shauna (@goldengateblond) May 8, 2017
Sally Yates did so much dunking on @tedcruz that CSPAN’s now a sports network. FOLKS, TIP YOUR WAITRESS.
— Gerry Duggan (@GerryDuggan) May 8, 2017
.@jeffsessions Are all the people who just laughed going to be charged with a crime? #SallyYates
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) May 8, 2017
BRB, just carving Sally Yates’ name on Mars because g-d hero.
— SarcasticRover (@SarcasticRover) May 8, 2017
Sally Yates pic.twitter.com/70ChvN5NrA
— Sean Thomason (@TheThomason) May 8, 2017
Imagine being Sally Yates’s kid and trying to pull off a lie about where you were last night
— Michael Crowley (@michaelcrowley) May 8, 2017
When I say everyone is loving it, I’m leaving out Cornyn and Cruz, who seemingly fled the room afterward without sticking around to hear Yates talk more about, y’know, the things she was actually there to talk about. Don’t let the door hit you, boys.
As far as the actual content of the hearing, Yates was pretty clear that she had warned Donald Trump’s administration that Mike Flynn should be considered compromised by Russia. Meanwhile, on the shouldn’t-have-been-at-all-related side, Trump’s team is still trying and failing to remove the evidence that Trump has made his intentions as far as banning Muslims from the United States very clear, with those intentions suddenly disappearing from the Internet just today:
@NickVFL @DiogenesLamp0 @Dubalicious1971 @VengeanceMail @stop_ur_crap @robinvanbeem then why delete it from his site?https://t.co/mQqlPhbGrd
— Soni (@soni_resist) May 8, 2017
so someone needs to tell the White House Head of Blogging that hitting backspace 1200 times doesnt delete the URLhttps://t.co/84jhYo5zhX pic.twitter.com/ji6H2NAOEv
— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) May 8, 2017
And, seriously, Trump himself talked about deliberately favoring Christian refugees. Proving his intent here does not require expert skills. John Oliver and Last Week Tonight really nailed this entire political fiasco properly with the term “Stupid Watergate,” huh?
(image: screengrab)
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Published: May 8, 2017 05:39 pm