Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday after she publicly announced doubts about the legality of his executive order barring refugees and immigrants from many predominantly Muslim countries. But standing up for integrity, principles and the rule of law for Americans meant nothing to Trumpsters Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich.
According to The New York Times, Yates wrote to Justice Department lawyers, “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.”
Instead of reconsidering his order – which has been widely criticized – Trump decided to fire the messenger.
Interestingly, Newt Gingrich had been critical, too. In a Washington Post article published right around the time he appeared on Hannity, Gingrich, an informal Trump adviser, was quoted as saying about the Trump White House, “The problem they’ve got is this is an off-Broadway performance of a show that is now the number one hit on Broadway.”
But on Hannity, Gingrich painted Trump as a Glorious Leader:
GINGRICH: This guy’s a chief executive officer. He runs a company. You’re the guy in charge of the flowers out front who walked in and said, “You know, I don’t like flowers, I’m thinking cactus.” He fires you. He doesn’t think about it a long time. He doesn’t go to therapy. He doesn’t appoint as many as seven people. He goes, “You’re gone, baby. That’s not what I asked for.”
I think this is so healthy for the federal government to have a leader who is prepared to actually insist that the wishes of the American people be respected by the people we hire that I think it’s just going to be a breath of fresh air.
If Trump really cared about the wishes of the American people, he’d rethink his order, given that in early January, only 48% of Americans supported a refugee ban. Now that Trump’s disapproval has surged of late, I doubt the ban has gotten any more popular. Also, considering that only 16% of Americans want Obamacare fully repealed, Trump should want to reconsider that plan, too. But Gingrich didn’t say a thing about any of that.
Instead, Gingrich said admiringly that Yates’ firing will send a message to the federal government, “You cross Donald J. Trump, the odds are, you’re not going to be in the federal government.”
In other words, Gingrich thought that blind loyalty to Trump, as opposed to the taxpayers paying their salaries, should be the sole guiding principles of federal employees. This from a guy who wouldn’t stay faithful to his own wives when they were going through life-threatening illnesses.
Gingrich next insisted that the guy he had just painted as a bungler to the Post, would be seen by the rest of the world as “a man who’s decisive. He’s not intimidated, he is not timid, and he is not confused.”
Well, not so far. But nice try!
Watch it above, from the January 30, 2017 Hannity.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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