Democrats Hammer “Tyrannical” Trump For “Monday Night Massacre”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Jan 31, 2017
House Democrats wasted no time in slamming President Trump’s decision to fire the nation’s top law enforcer after she refused to carry out his directives barring refugees and those traveling from Muslim-majority countries. In a Monday night political thriller, the White House said former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates “betrayed” the Justice Department at the threat of national security and was ousted just hours after she ordered DOJ lawyers not to enforce Trump’s immigration order.
However, the Democrats saw a “more sinister motive”, and according to The Hill, warned that Trump is adopting a tyrannical approach that politicizes the Justice Department and will discourage federal employees from upholding their constitutional duties across all agencies. Democrat lawmakers compared last night’s termination of Yates (which was followed by Trump’s unexplained firing of the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement), to Nixon’s 1973 purge of top officials who defied his wishes at the height of the Watergate scanda, also known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.”
“President Trump has commenced a course of conduct that is Nixonian in its design and execution and threatens the long-vaunted independence of the Justice Department,” said Rep. John Conyers (Mich.), senior Democratic on the House Judiciary Committee. “If dedicated government officials deem his directives to be unlawful and unconstitutional, he will simply fire them as if government is a reality show.”
He was not alone.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hailed Yates’s “courage” (which apparently prevented her from simply resigning in protest but had to engage the president knowing well how its would end) and accused Trump of acting recklessly “to get the answer he wants.” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), whose Maryland district is heavy with federal workers, said the firing represents “an alarming step for an administration already raising serious questions about its competence to govern.” And Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) warned Trump has set a “dangerous” precedent in ousting an official who simply disregarded an order that “is very likely unconstitutional.”
The Rest…HERE
