Sally Yates needs to be heard more often on Trump's unfitness - By Jennifer Rubin

[DonViejo]

By Jennifer Rubin October 17 at 10:00 AM

Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.

Former acting attorney general Sally Yates, who first alerted the White House to ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn’s lies and who was fired for refusing to defend the first travel ban (which was subsequently struck down, and then dropped by the administration) gave a recent interview. Her remarks should be taken to heart:

It is a long-standing tradition—and an essential one to the rule of law—that the Department of Justice operates independently . . . . At the risk of sounding preachy, the DOJ has to be able to make its decisions about investigations and prosecutions free of any political influence whatsoever. In Democratic and Republican administrations alike, that has been a time-honored norm, a time-honored tradition that the White House has absolutely no involvement in that.

She then explained what this meant in practice:

That means that, from my perspective, the president shouldn’t be trying to shame the attorney general for recusing from the investigation that it was frankly a no-brainer, I think, to recuse from. That [the president] shouldn’t be trying to goad [the attorney general] into re-initiating an investigation of a political rival or calling him up and trying to get him to drop a criminal prosecution of Sheriff [Joe] Arpaio.

We are confident she would agree that this also means the president shouldn’t be hectoring the special counsel, shouldn’t be falsely hinting at the existence of White House tapes or threatening to bring spurious charges against the former FBI director, shouldn’t be drafting a defense for his son to give a false explanation for his attendance at a meeting with Russian officials and shouldn’t be blaming immigrants for increased crime in some cities. Nor do I think she would find it acceptable for the president to dub the media’s right to publish what it wants “disgusting.” She’d, I am sure, agree that falsely claiming millions of people illegally voted undermines our entire electoral system.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/10/17/sally-yates-needs-to-be-heard-more-often-on-trumps-unfitness/?utm_term=.67cfab935cf3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The frenetic president is no one’s friend — for very long

By Jennifer Rubin October 17 at 9:00 AM

In remarks to reporters Monday morning at a Cabinet meeting, President Trump cheered his former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon who is rounding up primary challengers to take out GOP Senate incumbents. “There are some Republicans, frankly, that should ashamed of themselves,” Trump said. “So I can understand fully how Steve Bannon feels.” His criteria for such challengers reportedly includes refusal to vote for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as majority leader.

Later in a bizarre afternoon press conference with McConnell, Trump added, “I like Steve a lot. Steve is doing what Steve thinks is the right thing.” Then again, “Some of the people he may be looking at, I’m going to see if we talk him out of that.”

Despite the approved attack on McConnell’s colleagues, Trump also insisted his relationship with McConnell was super. “We’ve been friends for a long time. We are probably now — despite what we read — we’re probably now, I think, at least as far as I’m concerned, closer than ever before,” Trump said. “And the relationship is very good. We’re fighting for the same thing.” He added that McConnell is “outstanding.”

That didn’t stop him from taking a shot at McConnell later in the press conference on drug prices when he said drug companies “contribute massive amounts of money to political people.” He couldn’t resist adding, “Mitch maybe even [to] you.” Gosh, with friends like that, McConnell hardly needs Democrats to threaten his job and his GOP majority.

McConnell was considerably less effusive, saying the two talk frequently. As for the Bannon civil war, McConnell deadpanned, “Our operating approach will be to support our incumbents, and in open seats, to help nominate people who can actually win in November. . . . That’s the way you keep a governing majority.”

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/10/17/the-frenetic-president-is-no-ones-friend-for-very-long/?utm_term=.f009fee038d1