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[video=youtube;-3yDjylQ5Ps]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3yDjylQ5Ps[/video]
Two years ago — before U.S. President Donald Trump fired Sally Yates as acting attorney general, before Trump signed his controversial executive order on immigration, before he was even considered a remote possibility for president — a Senate confirmation grilling put Yates across the table from the man now set to take her place as the country's chief law enforcement officer.
The back-and-forth was an attempt to draw out how Yates, testifying to become deputy attorney general, viewed the obligations of heading the Justice Department.
"You have to watch out," Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama warned her. "Because people will be asking you to do things you just need to say 'No' about."
Fast-forward to 2017 and Sessions is awaiting confirmation to serve as the 84th U.S. attorney general. And Yates, an Obama administration appointee, was sacked Monday after directing her department not to defend Trump's executive order closing U.S. borders to people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
"Please be clear: Sally Yates was fired for honoring her oath, the Constitution and the law," tweeted David Rothkopf, the CEO and editor of Foreign Policy magazine.
The hashtag #SallyYatesAmericanHero began trending and the footage from her 2015 exchange with Sessions made the rounds, including a clip where Sessions asks Yates whether her allegiance would lie with the law or the chief executive of the country.
"Sometimes the lawyers have to tell the CEO: 'Mr. CEO, you can't do that. Don't do that. We'll get us sued. It's going to be in violation of the law. You'll regret it, please,'" he told her. "No matter how headstrong they might be. Do you feel like that's the duty of the attorney general's office?"
"Senator," she replied, "I believe that the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has the obligation to follow the law and the constitution, and to give their independent legal advice to the president."
Two years ago — before U.S. President Donald Trump fired Sally Yates as acting attorney general, before Trump signed his controversial executive order on immigration, before he was even considered a remote possibility for president — a Senate confirmation grilling put Yates across the table from the man now set to take her place as the country's chief law enforcement officer.
The back-and-forth was an attempt to draw out how Yates, testifying to become deputy attorney general, viewed the obligations of heading the Justice Department.
"You have to watch out," Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama warned her. "Because people will be asking you to do things you just need to say 'No' about."
Fast-forward to 2017 and Sessions is awaiting confirmation to serve as the 84th U.S. attorney general. And Yates, an Obama administration appointee, was sacked Monday after directing her department not to defend Trump's executive order closing U.S. borders to people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
"Please be clear: Sally Yates was fired for honoring her oath, the Constitution and the law," tweeted David Rothkopf, the CEO and editor of Foreign Policy magazine.
The hashtag #SallyYatesAmericanHero began trending and the footage from her 2015 exchange with Sessions made the rounds, including a clip where Sessions asks Yates whether her allegiance would lie with the law or the chief executive of the country.
"Sometimes the lawyers have to tell the CEO: 'Mr. CEO, you can't do that. Don't do that. We'll get us sued. It's going to be in violation of the law. You'll regret it, please,'" he told her. "No matter how headstrong they might be. Do you feel like that's the duty of the attorney general's office?"
"Senator," she replied, "I believe that the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has the obligation to follow the law and the constitution, and to give their independent legal advice to the president."
