Monday Night Massacre

[Dill]

This follows up recent threads posted by Dino and Pat over the most current scandal/crisis of the not-yet-two-week- old Trump presidency. The firing of an acting attorney general amidst the general confusion of an unconstitutional Muslim ban deserves its own thread.  I am old enough to remember Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre." This does not rise to that level--yet--but it is amazing, unprecedented and chaotic--the three words which journalists will be wearing out over the next few months as the extent of incompetence becomes plain.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/politics/trump-immigration-ban-memo.html?_r=0
President Trump fired his acting attorney general on Monday after she defiantly refused to defend his immigration executive order, accusing the Democratic holdover of trying to obstruct his agenda for political reasons.

Taking action in an escalating crisis for his 10-day-old administration, Mr. Trump declared that Sally Q. Yates had “betrayed” the administration. . . .

The extraordinary legal standoff capped a tumultuous day in which the White House confronted an outpouring of dissent over Mr. Trump’s temporary ban on entry visas for people from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, went so far as to warn State Department officials that they should leave their jobs if they did not agree with Mr. Trump’s agenda, after State Department officials circulated a so-called dissent memo on the order.

Over the weekend, four federal judges temporarily blocked part of the executive order, prohibiting the government from sending people back to their home countries.


Looks like the all important dissent channel at State will be shut down as well. This after Trump has installed Bannon on the NSC and initially dumped the head of the CIA.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/29/politics/susan-rice-steve-bannon/

President Donald Trump further reorganized the National Security Council on Monday after he came under sharp criticism for ousting the country's most senior intelligence and military officials as regular members of the Principals Committee -- and installing one of his top political advisers on the key panel.

Former acting CIA chief Michael Morell on Monday sharply criticized the move to add Bannon to the group while limiting the involvement of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and DNI, calling it "unprecedented" in an appearance on "CBS This Morning."