President Donald Trump on Monday sacked Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, an Obama appointee, after she instructed government law officers not to defend the Presidential order that put restrictions on people from seven Muslim-majority countries travelling to the U.S.
“Now have an Obama A.G,” Mr. Trump tweeted before he sacked Ms. Yates. “The Democrats are delaying my cabinet picks for purely political reasons. They have nothing going but to obstruct,” he said after Ms. Yates sent out her instructions to government lawyers. “For as long as I am the acting attorney general, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defence of the executive order,” she wrote.
She “has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States,” a White House statement issued on Monday night said. “Ms. Yates is an Obama administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration,” the statement said hours after Mr. Obama waded into the controversy, supporting protesters and questioning his successor.
Values at stake
Mr. Obama’s spokesperson said the former President is “heartened” by the popular mobilisation, which is “exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake”.
In the opening salvo on Tuesday morning — at 6.22 am — the President tweeted: “Nancy Pelosi and Fake Tears Chuck Schumer held a rally at the steps of The Supreme Court and mic did not work (a mess)-just like Dem party!” The mike had malfunctioned at the Democratic protest meet on Monday night and Mr. Schumer had broken down on Sunday, talking about the travel ban.
Mr. Trump had characterised his sweeping travel ban as continuation of Mr. Obama’s policy. The former President’s spokesperson refuted this suggestion. “With regard to comparisons to President Obama’s foreign policy decisions... the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.”
Dissent note
Meanwhile, the White House challenged career foreign service officers to quit if they did not agree with the President’s travel ban and other policies, even as dozens of them are gathering signatures for a dissent note. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said: “They should either get with the programme or they can go.”
Sparking off another confrontation with the Obama team, the White House claimed there was nothing unprecedented in chief strategist Steve Bannon attending the Principals Committee meeting of the National Security Council, as an adviser to the former President too used to do it.
David Axelrod, the adviser to President Obama, however refuted the claim. “As a senior adviser, I had the opportunity to witness the fateful deliberations of his NSC Principals committee over the strategy the U.S would pursue in the war with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan... In elevating Bannon to sit with the Secretaries of Defense and State and other key national security figures on the NSC principals committee, President Trump has blazed new ground.”.
