Of Justice Office of legal counsel. Ms. Yates is an Obama Administration appointee weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration. For more were joined in los angeles by california talk radio host ethan berman, National Committee man sean steel, and political analyst ron brownstein. Ron, first up, that was a blistering statement put out by the white house. It is. Look, it is not shocking that a president would dismiss an acting attorney general from the Previous Administration who refuses to support one of his initiatives in court. It is surprising to see the kind of language that was applied here. The word betrayal is an extraordinary word from the white house about a a public official in the government. And it is indicative of the way that the lines are deepening so quickly around this administration on the same day that the president can attacked john mccain and Lindsey Graham and chuck schumer. We are seeing very sharp lines being drawn in every possible direction around this administration. Only eight or nine days after the inauguration. Reporter okay, sean and ethan, our legal analyst mark geragos says the president was well within his rights to fire sally yates, acting attorney general, but added this well, yes. Hes within his rights to fire her, but for all of those who keep calling her an obama holdover, remember, yes, she was appointed by obama, but show was the gentleman who is now the acting attorney general. Theyre both obama appointees. And she specifically was asked by the Trump Administration to act as the acting attorney general until such time as sessions either gets confirmed or not confirmed. The president s got the ability to fire an a. G. Ironically its taken donald trump only ten days to match what Richard Nixon took years to do which is fire an attorney general who wouldnt do what you wanted him to do. Now, you have to understand something the part of the press release that was put out today by the administration was that they had cleared this with the office of Legal Council at the department of justice. The problem with that is that the office of Legal Council only looks at whether or not the form, whether or not its facially constitutional. She was looking beyond that. Theres two prongs to this. Is it constitution, number one, as a law, and number two, as its applied. And it was her judgment as its been two District Court judges judgment that its not constitutional as applied. Sean, obviously, the legal arguments can go round and round and round. You know, there are a lot of comparisons being drawn now between the Trump Administration and the nixon administration, especially when it comes to nixon directing the attorney general to investigate the prosecutor for watergate, and the attorney general resigning. There are similarities. There certainly is a sense of betrayal here. Trump goes out of his way to give this woman who is you know, a liberal who was appointed, brought in by obama, a chance to be an acting attorney general. As soon as she has a chance to try to attack and make him look bad and to misdirect the justices that are sworn to follow the president s lead, she does so. And of course she has to get fired. What we dont understand and the media is missing is that trump is not surprising anybody. He clearly said what he was going to do. Hes setting an agendas. Hes up front, transparent about it. The left is going crazy. They cant understand why theyre losing their power and their way of life and the control that theyve had. They dont understand the rest of america supports trump. Hes a disrupter. He wasnt elected to be a nice man. He was elected to undo the damage obama did. Ethan, even if he was elected on Campaign Promises, the Campaign Promises must be within the constitution. Absolutely. And thats whats interesting in this case. By firing the acting attorney general, hes already moved our attention away from the fact that the order itself is very likely unconstitutional under the 14th amendment, equal protection clause. People like green card holders, permanent citizens, are under attacking with this executive order. In march, 2015, the man who is tipped to be the next attorney general, Jeff Sessions, grilled the former acting attorney general, sally yates, during her confirmation hearing. Listen to this well, you have to watch out because people will be asking you to do things you need to say no about. Do you think the attorney general has a responsibility to say no to the president if he asks for something thats improper . A lot of people have defended the lynch nomination, for example, by saying, well, he appoints somebody whos going to execute his views. Whats wrong with that . But if the views the president wants to execute are unlawful, should the attorney general or the Deputy Attorney general say no . Senator, i believe that the attorney general or the Deputy Attorney general has an obligation to follow the law and the constitution and to give their independent legal advice to the president. An incredible moment given whats happened over the last couple of hours. The takeaway is its already to stand up to president obama but not to President Trump . Right. Theres no irony in washington. It is where you stand depends on where you sit. Referring is situational. That is an extraordinary moment especially because its Jeff Sessions asking the questions. I think whats striking is that his nomination is hanging in the balance against the backdrop of this controversy. You have as many as a dozen republican senators who have raised objections of varying degrees to the executive order including several like john mccain and Lindsey Graham who have, you know, rather unequivocally condemned it. They have a point of leverage. There are only 52 republicans in the senate. If there was a group of republican senators who said, look, we are not going to vote to confirm Jeff Sessions, which is more urgent than ever for the administration, until the administration considers some changes in this order, that would be their point of leverage. Donald trump is a student of power. He knows that republican senators raise lots of objections about rex tillerson, his secretary of state, and vote for him. If they do it again on the executive word Jeff Sessions, it would not be surprising to conclude in one of his favorite phrases all talk, no action. And we have heard john mccain, Lindsey Graham, and others coming out, talking against the travel ban, the executive order. Is there some concern that maybe Jeff Sessions, that the appointment, will be held up . Its a liberals favorite dream. Again the republicans are going to fracture. I was looking this up earlier. I heard the same thing. This is december of 2015. It was going to fracture the Republican Party. Every time a liberal pundit says this, every time they predict a terrible fall for trump, he tends to go up, and they tend to have egg on their face. All of the senators have committed to Jeff Sessions. Hes going to be attorney general. Get comfortable with that. Theres two reasons the liberals dont get it. One is omar martine, the one from in orlando that killed 49 a citizen a u. S. Citizen, came from an afghan family, was a devotee of isis wasnt on the travel ban. And secondly the one from the brothers the ones from russia. Right. Which also is not on the travel ban. Lets make this clear were taking worst countries right now according to obama that have the greatest degree of terrorism exporting terrorism to europe and other parts of the world. This is just a small step in the right direction. Americans embrace that. But liberal pundits hate it. What sean is saying, there are polls out, not rasmussen because we dont use it. But the quinnipiac poll, there was i think 4842 support for this travel ban. Yeah. Exactly. And thats the problem. We are not a direct democracy. We are a representative republic. Were not supposed to be run by mob rule. And by the way, working classes have always resented immigrants in the United States of america. Its the beacon of liberty to the world that we accept people who arent necessarily always the most desirable on the face. Okay. We know the president s in the past have used their executive wh order when it comes to this. George h. W. Bush used it 12 times. George w. Bush, six times. Barack obama, 19 times. Ron, to you, why is it so different now, why are there so many people protesting on the streets . Why is this so sdmefrl. I think its controversial . I think its the sweeping magnitude and the sent to which both in his own the extent to come which both in his own words and executive order, it implies a religious test. His interview with a Christian Broadcast Network over the weekend talking about the the president talking about priority to christians from these countries, and look, it is important, what we are seeing on the streets is truly unprecedented. To have the first weekend of the presidency, essentially one in every 100 americans in the streets protesting. Following that up a week later over a group that is not inhere inherently, as you noted in the polling, the most sympathetic possible target in American Public opinion. A travel travelers or immigrants from middle east countries again the backdrop of concern about terror. To have this many people again, it is a reminder, i think, of how extraordinarily deep the lines are. I do believe that the dynamic for democrats in congress is being set in the streets. I think many of them ensession that they would deal with a trump presidency, a typical way, pick from menu a, menu b, when to work on some things, fight them on others. They are scrambling, i think, to keep up with their base. Now, demanding going to demand a higher level of confrontation and resistance than many might have expected from the outset. Sean, want to ask you something from what Vice President dick cheney said last month. The notion that somehow we can say no more muslims, ban a whole religion, goes against everything we stand for and believe in. I mean, religious freedom has been an important part of our history and where we came from. He said that also a year ago. By the way was he wrong . I dont disagree with that. Listen, i dont think i heard him he couldnt have said this was a religious test. Everybody else knows its not. This is a test that simply says restricts people from certain countries that export terrorism. The doesnt mention the word religion or any religion at all. It does give exceptions in that executive order. One are persecuted religious minorities. Shia muslims, yazidis, or christians featuring genocide. People never wanted to it look at those facing historical genocide. Trump brought it up and made it a priority. Thats important. To anybody to suggest in light of the media 24 hours ago were saying that, its not true. Its not a religious test the list of liberals would include Lamar Alexander and Mitch Mcconnell who have raised questions Lamar Alexander said, was uncomfortably crossed over into a religious test. It Mitch Mcconnell said theyre going to have adjudicate it. Were going to see the Court Decides the answer to this question. Its not me or you who answers the question. It is going to be the court. I think it is indicative of how many republicans have raised questions about where this is going, where it positions the party and leaves the u. S. On the world stage. Were also hearing from former president barack obama, his Office Released a statement. The president fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion. They added, the protests are exactly what we expect to see when American Values are at stake. Ethan, are we about to see barack obama go head to head with President Donald Trump . I dont know that hes going to go that far yet. I love the fact that he came out and supported First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble and protest in this country. I 100 support the protests. Im only disappointed i wasnt at l. A. X. On saturday i completely support your right to have the protests. I would have a lot more street action, more protests because the Democrat Party is going to continue to shrink as more and more americans get alien yatesed, especially alienated, especially if you stop my progress at the airport. If you do that, i dont care what your ideasology ideolo youre my enemy forever. This is an indication of what well expect from barack obama ten days since he left the oval office. Obviously hes not going to go away. No. That is extraordinary for a former president to be criticizing his successor this fast. Again, i think it is indicative of whats happening here. There are elements of the country that are very excited and supportive of the things that donald trump is doing. He is also stirring an intense and really unprecedented backlash at the outset of his presidency. Sean doesnt like the numbers, but gallup has polled in every new president since 1953. Donald trump is at majority disapproval eight days into his presidency. Typically its taken president s 500 days or more to reach that dubious milestone. Yes, there is a coalition that is supportive of what he is doing, but he has stirred an intense backlash that really is requiring all institutions to kind of take a stand on which side of the line you want look at all of the Tech Companies that set out at the beginning of the administration to find a working relationship that are moving into more open opposition, including some that have gone into court to support the governor of washington who you interviewed in the last hour who was going in to court. Are you seeing kind of a very quick and deep hardening of the lines between blue america and red america. I think that is the template we are going to be living with for the next many months. And sean, quickli, it does seem as if the president s trying to change the conversation, moving up the announcement of his Supreme Court nominee tomorrow night. Yes. I welcome obama, all the work that hes done creating the Republican Party which were on our last vestiges eight years ago. We have 34 governorships, 48 lendi legislators, both houses of congress. The president has done so much for the Republican Party, i want him to be out leading in the street. More than that, im looking forwards to that this disruptive president is changing our society before our eyes. Hes doing it not trying to make friends, not trying to be apologetic, and certainly not backing down. Its working. Ethan, hes trying to change the conversation. I think the democrats should fight tooth and nail and resist the Supreme Court nominee as long as they can just like the republicans did, the democrats out to take that page from the republican playbook. Clearly that worked for the republicans who won everything this cycle. Ron, last word, were obviously setting up for a period of conflict, i guess, between the republicans and democrats because that is not only the republicans and democrats i agree with sean. Donald trump is a president , and with the advice of steve bannon, i think its the ideological godfather who is trying to change american society. And you are seeing the intensity of the reaction to that. In many ways, Hillary Clinton underperformed the level of resistance that there is to Donald Trumps vision of society because there were so many doubts about her. Now donald trump is standing there on his own without Hillary Clinton next to her. It will be his job on his own to build an affirmative majority for his vision of america. Thats the challenge he is setting up. Well see if he can meet it in 2018 and 2020. Okay on. That, ill say thank you. Okay. Well take a break. Much more on this tumultuous start to Donald Trumps second week as president. Americas nup aew acting top co supporting the controversial travel ban that sparked chaos, confusion, and protests around the world. Some Trump Supporters is, many Trump Supporters, theyre happy about everything. You will hear from them. 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