"Anger mounts over handling of US attorney firings."
It was something totally normal to do. Democratic Presidents have done it. But it's got to be enraging because it's Trump, so "handling" comes in handy.
March 11, 2017
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I thought the convention was that all U.S. attorneys resigned when a new President came in anyway.
The N.P. can turn down resignations but otherwise it's just being polite to do it.
The "warning" was on November 9. I thought these people were supposed to be smart.
The final paragraph in the NY Times article attempted to link the firings to Sean Hannity's call for a "purge." These people are deranged.
how boring. there was similar pissing and moaning when bush the younger did the same thing. it's listed in the journalistic playbook in the section titled "stuff that's bad when a republican does it".
The MSM sucks. Bigly.
What the NYT headline says: "Trump Abruptly Orders 46 Obama-Era Prosecutors to Resign"
What Fifth paragraph says: “The Attorney General has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed U.S. Attorneys to tender their resignations in order to ensure a uniform transition.”
Note the ease with which the NYT uses "Trump" in the headline to refer to the Attorney General in the fifth paragraph.
Compare this with the criticism Trump received for tweeting "without evidence" that Obama (as opposed to the Attorney General) had wiretapped Trump. Apparently Trump needs to tweet with a level of precision that the NYT does not apply to itself for front page news.
It's not "newsworthy" without the anti-Trump angle. In trying to make it so, they turn nonpartisan facts into fake news.
CNN has ever increasing wrath - good for them, that sounds exciting.
At least Preet Bharara got canned.
"Preet, preet!" said the parakeet.
"Bharara" the sheep responded.
Meh, I don't see the outrage over this as is being portrayed. Every news story I've read or heard about it says it's not unusual for an incoming President to do this.
But it's got to be enraging because it's Trump,
Nope..it's enraging because it's a Republican......they'd be reacting the same way to President Jeb Bush, President Cruz or President Romney.
Fake assertions.
The Dems are ticked off because their foot soldiers were going the good work of the Democratic Party & were paid for by the US Treasury. Now, what are they gonna do? Pay all those lawyers to push the Party Line? That'd cost a fortune!
Trump just removed some arrows out of the Democrats' quiver. While the firings have precedent & are perfectly legal, don't expect the Democrats to be happy about it.
""There was not any particular clarity from the Justice Department as to what the future held for the US attorneys" until now, one source said."
Maybe if the Senate Dems hadn't strung out the AG's confirmation...
Presumably this is the sort of peaceful, legitimate transfer of power that Hillary wants her myrmidons to Resist!
As a political appointee, professionalism requires one to submit a resignation letter when the president issued the appointment leaves office, and it doesn't matter whether or not the new president is of a different party. A better question is why these 46 appointees hadn't submitted their letters by January 21st?
Eventually, there will be consequences from this constantly increasing rage. An explosion.
As I have written many times, Trump should have fired every single political appointee the minute after taking the oath on January 20th. By this point in time, every single Obama appointee who burrowed into the civil service in the last 4 months should have been transferred to an empty office in Fairbanks, Alaska with all security clearances revoked.
Eric Holder in 2009 - "Elections matter--it is our intention to have the U.S. Attorneys that are selected by President Obama in place as quickly as they can."
I've misplaced the link, but someone on Twitter posted a picture of the firing letter newly-elected President Bill Clinton sent to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Arkansas in 1993: Jeff Sessions. A competent and honest press would have made sure every American knew of the irony that one of the people fired in 1993 is doing the firing in 2017.
The anger mounts. And then in a few days it dismounts.
Any U.S. Attorney expressing outrage at being dismissed from a post that he/she got via presidential appointment from Obama is merely practicing politics. There were 46 who already resigned, the 46 that had not already done so were either burying their heads in the sand or are naive. As is the writer of CNN's article about the firings. Fake news abounds.
I'm shocked, shocked to find politics in this administration.
I seem to remember the GW Bush transition, where he didn't fire them fast enough, and then when he did, they sued, and, I think won, for a bit. When the Presidency changes party, it is critically important that US Attys be replaced by those sympathetic to the new President, because they have a lot of power in implementing policy. Imagine, for example, an Omaha USA being required to enforce immigration law against illegals. Or, one of these sweetheart deals where corporations are given the choice of paying fines to the Feds, or to a left wing activist group, like Las Raza or Planned Parenthood, which, cumulatively grossed hundreds of millions of dollars under Obama. Or, indeed, the zealousnos of prosecuting prominent Dems under the Espionage Act (hopefully starting with Crooked Hillary). Arguably, the big reason that the investigation of the Clinton Foundation never went anywhere was that it was assigned to one of the USAs most loyal to AG Lynch.
This is what happens when Scientific Progressives are allowed to become so-called "US Attorneys".
Fire them again just to be sure.
As my dad used to say "I'll give you something to cry about". It looks like these folks need another shiny penny to chase.
More fake news. Any US Attorney who claims not to have expected this is a liar or a bonehead. Traditionally, resignations were submitted immediately or, in Clinton's case, requested immediately.
This blather is more evidence of the corruption and shamelessness of the leftymediaswine, particularly CNN. TIME FOR Trump to renew his attacks on them.
Billy Dale was not available for comment.
Fake news.
@Fernandinande
Not so fast!
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/323537-obama-appointed-us-attorney-in-ny-refusing-to-submit
Blogger Unknown said...
"Meh, I don't see the outrage over this as is being portrayed. Every news story I've read or heard about it says it's not unusual for an incoming President to do this."
In order to avoid cognitive dissonance the ever-predictable, unceasingly disingenuous Unknown now comments without reading either the post or the link.
"As a political appointee, professionalism requires one to submit a resignation letter when the president issued the appointment leaves office, and it doesn't matter whether or not the new president is of a different party. A better question is why these 46 appointees hadn't submitted their letters by January 21st?"
Because they are Democrats.
It's beyond ridiculous that anybody is even commenting on the turnover, let alone making it out to be the next step on the road to apocalypse. This happens every presidential transition. The U.S. Attorneys knew it was coming. When one or two are held over, like Rosenstein and Letten last time, that's the only wrinkle in the process worth discussing.
That said, Bharara's firing is a bit of a surprise given the administration's earlier stance. I have to think that's aimed squarely at Schumer as payback for being so obnoxious of late. Trump offered a carrot, but he's not afraid to bust out the stick where the carrot doesn't work.
Frankly, I am disappointed. The fake outrage here is lame even for the Left/MSM/Democrats. I demand higher quality fake outrage, damnit!
Preet Bharara met with Trump after the election and agreed to remain in his position during the Trump administration. Sessions also asked him to stay, the prosecutor told The New York Times. There were ongoing investigations such as the one against Mayor De Blasio to complete and new ones to begin against some Cuomo staffers and then the stuff hit the fan:
From the NY Times: "Last week, several public interest groups, including Democracy 21 and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called on Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and an aggressive prosecutor of corruption, to investigate the Trump Organization, the New York-based business through which Mr. Trump owns and controls his hotels, golf courses and other holdings. But that effort might not go far because the Department of Justice on Friday asked Mr. Bharara and 45 other United States attorneys appointed by former President Barack Obama to resign."
Oops, I'll bet this is not fake news.
I have thought for a while that real, potential, perceived, or alleged conflicts of interest might be the biggest danger to Trump's presidency. It might not be feasible to do (or at least, to do quickly), but I would prefer that he divest himself of his business holdings and put the proceeds in a blind trust.
Bharara should submit his resignation as requested and if Trump wants him to stay he'll refuse it.
The convention is not that hard to understand.
The others that he doesn't want will go.
Michael quips: The anger mounts. And then in a few days it dismounts.
:-D
It's weird because he made a show of asking him to stay.
The administration isn't up and running smoothly. It's all just gossipy fun until we need things to work smoothly in an emergency. Hopefully there's no emergency for the next 4 or 8 years.
The firing of Bharara makes sense as he is the Attorney that would be involved in an investigation into Trump Tower wire tapping or corruption. Obviously it's worth it to Trump despite Bharara investigating two prominent Democrats. What is Trump so afraid of?
Unknown #55 @ 10:41am
"Meh, I don't see the outrage over this as is being portrayed. Every news story I've read or heard about it says it's not unusual for an incoming President to do this."
Unknown #55 @ 1:53pm
"The firing of Bharara makes sense as he is the Attorney that would be involved in an investigation into Trump Tower wire tapping or corruption. Obviously it's worth it to Trump despite Bharara investigating two prominent Democrats. What is Trump so afraid of?"
Compare. Contrast. Learn the newest, updated talking points. Every statement made is immediately retracted, revised and extended as necessary to the BAMN cause.
NYT just can't get even simple things right.
The only "anger" is from Dems who have to find new jobs, or Dems who don't understand that US Attorneys serve are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the President.
Those of us who voted for Trump are actually quite pleased by this prosecutorial house cleaning.
For the slow learners (Birkel):
The 46 attorneys being fired by an incoming President isn't unusual.
An attorney that was promised by Trump that he would keep him on, then firing him anyway, after learning he was under investigation, is unusual.
"From the NY Times: "Last week, several public interest groups, including Democracy 21 and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called on Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and an aggressive prosecutor of corruption, to investigate the Trump Organization, the New York-based business through which Mr. Trump owns and controls his hotels, golf courses and other holdings. But that effort might not go far because the Department of Justice on Friday asked Mr. Bharara and 45 other United States attorneys appointed by former President Barack Obama to resign.""
Preet was the one who should have been kept, and hopefully will be re-hired, but this whole thing is just a panic from the left wing when a republican enters office.
Bigger outrage of the day - UC Berkeley gives up, shuts down its online lecture program because of a judge ruling on an ADA suit. Berkeley had no way to equally accommodate the deaf. So this resource is now, absurdly and tragically, unavailable to anyone.
I have previously mentioned this idiotic case. This is likely to shut down all such online university programs.
I class this with the Taliban blowing up the Bamiyan Buddhas.
It's stuff like this, the lefts insane zeal to simply destroy, that leads to my pessimism. You aren't fighting people with a different set of reasonably held opinions, but pure nihilism.
I refuse to learn the details of your conspiracy theory. It's not that I'm a slow learner, just that some things are unworthy of my attention.
Those talking points will not spout themselves so scurry along.
He seems to be one of the least partisan Assistant Attorneys General that I have seen since I moved to New York 17 years ago.
As for the rest? Political positions always rely on someone who agrees with your politics to maintain your position. You know that when you take the job, but good grief, don't play sads if you aren't kept on.
"I refuse to learn the details of your conspiracy theory. It's not that I'm a slow learner, just that some things are unworthy of my attention."
Either you're a dummie or you're obfuscating. Whatever, doesn't matter.
"Either you're a dummie or you're obfuscating. Whatever, doesn't matter."
Another reason why I will never enter a discussion with you. You can't even spell dummy.
" You aren't fighting people with a different set of reasonably held opinions, but pure nihilism."
Or stupidity so severe that you wonder how they remember to breathe.
"Either you're a dummie or you're obfuscating. Whatever, doesn't matter."
Irony so sweet it hurts my teeth just to note it.
Michael K, so you want to quibble over the spelling of dummie/dummy while your President so obviously fires the guy who may have been getting ready to investigate him. Yes, you too are a Trump dummie/ dummy.
GrapeApe:
More than likely this comes from one of two factors
1) Jeff Sessions has somebody else in mind for the position who will pursue enforcement efforts consistent with larger organizational goals, or
2) There is a clash of personalities between the new boss (who is not the same as the old boss) and Bharara.
I hope reason #1 is correct. Further, I hope the Justice Department pursues antitrust, insider trading, SEC violations and other white collar crime more vigorously than it has. It would also be nice if the political corruption of the Northeast corridor, especially the NYS governor and NYC mayor who have, from this vantage point, been guilty of Illinois and Louisiana levels of corruption. And on that score the reporting of Bharara's actions look hard to beat. But given my general distrust of political reporting in high profile cases, it is difficult to know if Bharara was seen as too close to the Obama Administration and its cronies.
Unknown #55 @ 2:41pm
"...obviously fires the guy who may..."
That sentence cannot.
And these people are Trump loyalists. Your "President" misspells words while Tweeting quite often...."Wire tapp! Unpresidented!"
Hahahahahaha!
Bharara is a protege of Chuckie Schumer, who, right after the election was the one who asked Trump to keep him on. Trump, in a burst of bipartisan graciousness, agreed. Since then, Chuckie had been crapping on everything Trump has said or done. So that deal was cancelled a long time ago. And sorry Unknown, but there is no investigation of the Trump Organization, real or imagined. That some lefty, deranged organizations asked for one does not mean one is even contemplated.
Buwaya cites: Bigger outrage of the day - UC Berkeley gives up, shuts down its online lecture program because of a judge ruling on an ADA suit. Berkeley had no way to equally accommodate the deaf. So this resource is now, absurdly and tragically, unavailable to anyone.
I have previously mentioned this idiotic case. This is likely to shut down all such online university programs.
I class this with the Taliban blowing up the Bamiyan Buddhas.
It's stuff like this, the lefts insane zeal to simply destroy, that leads to my pessimism. You aren't fighting people with a different set of reasonably held opinions, but pure nihilism.
I'm surprised they haven't ruled that the blind [sorry--visually challenged] have the right to fly aircraft and that commercial and private planes must be equipped to allow it. Absurdity has truly extended its limits.
@ jameswhy
You have it all wrong. If a Leftist Collectivist asked for a thing then it must.
1) Leftist asks for a thing,
2) ????
3) Make a million dollars.
At some point your denials will be proof that they must steal more underwear.
" And sorry Unknown, but there is no investigation of the Trump Organization, real or imagined. That some lefty, deranged organizations asked for one does not mean one is even contemplated."
Sure, keep hope alive.
Breaking news: Bharara refused to resign, is fired! Less than honorable yet typical behavior from the left. Trump's decision to change his mind validated.
I suggest jameswhy has the answer.
Unknown/Inga has no idea why things happen around her and thinks it must be spirits or something.
Your "President" misspells words while Tweeting quite often..
Yeah...nobody ever makes spelling and grammar mistakes on twitter except Trump.......
Isn't it SOP at twitter that you are not constrained by spelling and grammar rules?
@ jameswhy
You must keep hope for a thing. That thing is the current state of affairs. You must hope for reality. #55 has placed its hopes on stealing. Stealing and an alternative set of facts that are not so.
Your underwear will disappear and while you are going commando the left will be millionaires. Mark #55's words. It's crazy words.
"Bharara refused to resign, is fired!"
Another person who doesn't believe they work for the president and/or the AG. Another person who doesn't respect the will of the people to freely elect their leaders.
That's how CNN and the NYT are going to portray it, right?
Even Rod Rosenstein and Dana Boenta were asked to submit their resignations. They did. And Trump refused theirs. Maybe if Bharara had, his would have been refused as well.
Funny thing: My anger didn't mount at all. In fact, my satisfaction did. At this point, all Obama political appointees must be viewed with a jaundiced eye. They can be expected to be reluctant to implement Trump's policies at the very least, and are most likely to be disloyal to his administration. They all need to go. The Democrats can do the same thing whenever they manage to return to power.
How can anger mount beyond eleven?
And once again, the MSM are willing tools.
Bharara probably has political ambitions in New York, hence the drama scene about resigning.
"I was fired by Donald Trump!"
Good luck.
Preet Bharara? The power hungry thug who subpoenaed Reason for a list of their commenters, and placed them under a gag order? That guy? Good riddance.
Here's a hidden gem at the bottom of the CNBC story.
Bharara's announcement on Twitter came just eight days after he set up his personal [Twitter] account, in which he described himself as a Bruce Springsteen fan, a "Patriotic American & proud immigrant." The first tweet by the India native, on March 3, was rather ominous.
Follow
Preet Bharara ✔ @PreetBharara
This is my personal Twitter account. Stay tuned...
6:14 PM - 3 Mar 2017
455 455 Retweets 1,078 1,078 likes
"The power hungry thug who subpoenaed Reason for a list of their commenters, and placed them under a gag order"
Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that. Insty remembers:
Here’s what I wrote back when Bharara subpoenaed Reason for its commenters’ names, and then put them under a gag order: “I continue to think that this is a case of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara doing one (or both) of two things: (1) Attempting a sort of brushback pitch regarding people talking smack about federal judges, to the effect of saying that we can’t punish you under the First Amendment but we’ll go after you anyway; and/or (2) doing a ‘favor’ for a judge before whom he has a lot of cases. Both seem like abuses of power to me.”
Likewise, Bharara’s grandstanding here is basically an effort to ingratiate himself with anti-Trump Democrats on the way out, presumably in the expectation of reaping political or professional rewards. It is, thus, a species of corruption, and deserves to be called such.
"Anger mounts over stupid reporting."
It's absolutely perfect that the media flips over this and every single other run of the mill type action.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Keep it at "11" lefties. Don't let the outrage slip for a second. And be sure to order the next wave of genitalia hats. Nothing says "Serious Political Thinker" quite like genitalia hats!
Carry on!
I have no water to carry for this man for his own sake, but I certainly hope that the investigations into the corruption of certain New York politicians will proceed unimpeded. You have no idea how we need to get rid of Cuomo and de Blasio.
Gahrie said...
"But it's got to be enraging because it's Trump,"
Nope..it's enraging because it's a Republican......they'd be reacting the same way to President Jeb Bush, President Cruz or President Romney.
I agree with Gahrie. Any Repubican AG would be in for this kind of treatment; a willful disregard of how Democrats have handled the DoJ.
Remember the Bush years? The They made a Wikipedia page for that "scandal." It is an astonishing thing to read in hindsight. How that ever became a "scandal" at all, is a case study in press bias.
But I also agree with Althouse. Trump brings out the "rage" -- rational or irrational -- in the national media and elsewhere in the body politic, and now so too does Jeff Sessions.
I do wonder about timing, and the nature of the announcement. There are a variety of ways that this could have been handled to put the press on more of a defensive posture, given the basic propriety of the requested resignations.
Steve Bannon calls the mainstream media "the opposition." Not even "an opponent." It's THE opponent. Given that, and recalling how the press distorted the Bush Administration US Attorney 'non-scandal,' one might think that Bannon and Sessions would have learned something. If (as I'd be the first to concede) the feelings between several USA offices and TrumpSessions were so bad that there was a fear that hostile USA's might do some harm (sabotaging administration policies, etc.), it might have been better to single those cases out and make a preemptive public relations move with that in mind.
It just occurred to me; there are probably a lot of genuine Trump fans, who aren't readers of the Wall Street Journal, and who may be hearing about "Preet Bharara" for the first time.
But for Journal readers, they have been hearing for years, how Preet Bharara has abused his office in political prosecutions.
Good riddance to the guy; he will very naturally show up as next car in the Eliot Sptizer/Andrew Cuomo/Eric Schneiderman political train. After he works on Wall Street for about 18 months, making 10 or 15 million for himself as a buffer. Cuz the Cuomo family got a lot of buffers.
I don;t think there was any way to "finesse" this matter with the attorneys.
Bush left the Clinton appointees in place, a terrible mistake. Then a year later Gonzales tried to fire the 7 or 8 worst of them and a firestorm erupted.
As all power mad USA's are Hitlerian Proggies obsessed with status, most commonly derived through credentials and a title, especially a title such as Friend Of Bill, it might seem logical for a moment to consider leaving in place a few of the comparatively good ones holding on and over, but only if you don't agree with the Al Pacino speech in "Any Given Sunday" that life is a game if inches.
Not all Nazi's were shown to be equal, viewed from the same perspective (i.e. Nazi's are white so therefore about, maybe, worse than Satan or alternatively they were mere human pawns that heroically fought a good fight for their families) or not.
Assume hateful malice with any interactions involving any too-fierce-for-their-own-good competitive strivers, and instantly disregard nihilism as a potentially logical conclusion when considering effects of choices made and the impetus of those choices, as until shown otherwise the Almighty Dollar directs all outcomes even when largely unknowable and full of risk.
If men and women were like Justice Thomas there would be no need for a court system. Same token though, frog/wings/bumpless/ass.
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