You're Fired!

[BoSoxGal]

Trump just fired the acting AG Sally Yates after she issued a statement indicating she would refuse to enforce the E.O. banning travel as she believes it to be unlawful.

eta: I thought we could use this thread to track all the people he's going to fire in the course of his crazy reign.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Not surprised. A genuine hero is Ms. Yates. Who was the last president to fire an AG? Was it Nixon and Archibald Cox, via the late and unlamented Robert Bork?

[BoSoxGal]

Yup, the 'Saturday night massacre'.

[Lord Jim]

Who was the last president to fire an AG?

Nixon didn't actually fire an AG...

He wanted the Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox fired, and he ordered The AG at the time, Elliot Richardson, to fire him. Rather than fire Cox, Richardson resigned...(Richardson had originally taken the job with a promise from Nixon that he would have independence, and be able to name a Special Prosecutor for Watergate.)

Nixon then ordered the Deputy Attorney General, William Ruckelshaus (who became acting AG) to fire Cox, and rather than fire him, he also resigned...

Then Nixon ordered the third person in line, then Solicitor General Robert Bork (who became the acting AG after Ruckelshaus resigned) to fire Cox and he did...

[ex-khobar Andy]

Thanks for assisting my memory LJ. As I recall that did not end well . . . Or perhaps it did, depending on one's point of view.

[Burning Petard]

But that was all back in the Nixon era, when the GOP had some sense of honor and shame.

snailgate

[Big RR]

NPR played a tape this morning of the confirmation hearing of Ms. Yates where Sen Sessions asked her if she'd stand up to a president when (s)he was wrong and she answered affirmatively; Sessions then extolled the actions of Ashcroft when he refused to sign Bush administration documents relating to domestic survellanbce while he was hospitalized that he believed were for illegal actions. you can't make these things up

[Burning Petard]

Please note the acting attny genl was fired by our president because she was not loyal. Truth, Justice, and the American Way, which now includes loyalty above the law, for law enforcement officers. The senate hearings to approve the new Attny Genl will be interesting.

snailgate

[Guinevere]

Link to the Sessions video:

https://www.facebook.com/shaunking/vide ... 191238196/

She did exactly what she was supposed to do, she supported the Constitution. Now, the President can fire her, it's a political position after all, but the WH comments were uncalled for and untrue.

[Big RR]

but the WH comments were uncalled for and untrue.

Untrue? No just more alternate facts.

[Burning Petard]

The fun thing about presidential appointments is they are like employment at will--you can be fired at any time for any reason or no real at all. In this case of the acting attny genl, the white house would have been much better off, both in the short run and the long, if they had just said "Ms Yates, thank you for your years of service. You are no longer needed. Good by."

More disturbing is the messages that have been sent out to career foreign service officers who are Ambassadors, that they too can be fired by the President.

snailgate

[Long Run]

Yates was a hold over from the Obama administration and was on her way out the door anyway. She refused to defend a defensible order, which is insubordination. If she didn't want to work for the administration, she should have resigned. This was more grandstanding than standing up to the POTUS. But she scored a lot of liberal points and will be well compensated for it as she heads into private practice.

More disturbing is the messages that have been sent out to career foreign service officers who are Ambassadors, that they too can be fired by the President.
snailgate

? Ambassadors are political appointees and usually replaced day one in every new administration. What are you referring to?

[Big RR]

As Sessions pointed out during her confirmation hearing, the AG is not merely an instrument of the president and sometimes must refuse to defend something that person believes is indefensible. She was doing her job, not being insubordinate. Certainly the president can fire her, as Nixon did his AG and deputy AG, but let's not pretend it was because of her job performance.

[Guinevere]

Not to mention the Order is indefensible, since its violates equal protection and due process on its face.

[Long Run]

Not to mention the Order is indefensible, since its violates equal protection and due process on its face.

She did not say that. She said she was not convinced of its legality, and that she opposed it on policy grounds.

[Long Run]

Certainly the president can fire her, as Nixon did his AG and deputy AG, but let's not pretend it was because of her job performance.

? As Jim pointed out, Nixon did not fire his AG or deputy AG. And of course she was fired for her job performance or more accurately her refusal to perform her job. Apart from the merits of the Executive Order (which was poorly conceived and more poorly implemented), people need to do their jobs or resign. The question of opposing the president is also off topic since the question was whether she would stand up to the president who appointed her; here, she is on her way out and is "standing up" to a political opponent. Wait 4 or 8 years when the next D is elected POTUS and the R-AG holdover refuses to enforce early actions on "principle".

[Guinevere]

What she actually wrote:

But my role as leader of this institution is different and broader. My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts. In addition, I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right. 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.

So why did Sessions grill on on her independence? As she said in her confirmation hearing, her job is to deliver independent legal advice. That is precisely what she did.

[BoSoxGal]

Long Run, you don't understand prosecutorial discretion - which is a big part of the job. Google it.

[Econoline]

She had to have known that taking that position would get her immediately fired. I wonder if it would have come across better if she had done what Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus did under Nixon: resign rather than carry out the President's order.

[BoSoxGal]

Sometimes it's better to walk away from a job than to participate in a farce, or even worse, something you find morally reprehensible.

I know, I've been there.