Silke Jasso
Former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates was fired by President Trump in January after she refused to enforce his travel ban. Yates ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers to not defend the executive action.
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Yates appeared once again in the face of the Trump administration when she testified at a Monday hearing designed to explore any collusion between the Trump administration and Russia. During the hearing, Yates said that she attempted to warn the administration about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned only a few weeks into his tenure after admitting he had misled the White House about his communications with Russia’s American ambassador.
The ladies of ABC’s “The View” discussed Yates’ warning.
“If 55 people are telling you there’s a problem, why would you ignore all these red flags?” Whoopi Goldberg asked, reminding the audience of reports that former President Obama had also tried to warn Trump against adding Flynn to the administration.
Jedediah Bila said that the circumstances around Flynn’s controversy bothered her, as Vice President Mike Pence once publicly stated that Flynn was not discussing things such as sanctions with Russia with the ambassador. Bila said that the purposeful misleading of Pence jeopardized his reputation.
“If the White House top lawyer knew that wasn’t the case, and if President Trump knew that wasn’t the case, why did he put his vice president […] out there to disseminate this false information?” she asked.
Sunny Hostin thought that firing Flynn initially would have exposed connections between members of the Trump administration and the Russian government.
Sarah Haines said that Trump didn’t believe that he had done anything wrong, while Joy Behar jumped in to say that Trump was a “pathological liar.”
The ladies continued to criticize Trump’s “stubbornness” over Flynn.
