Though the networks on Tuesday were excited by the “dramatic” and “explosive” testimony of Sally Yates, only CBS This Morning bothered to show Ted Cruz hammering the ex-Justice Department official about the legality of Donald Trump’s travel ban. Co-host Norah O’Donnell described how the Republican called out Yates: “Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked Yates to explain why she thought it was okay to defy the President. He quoted the statute that gives the President authority over immigration.”
Reading aloud to the woman fired by Trump, he reminded: “Whenever the President finds the entry of any alien or any class of alien in the United States would be detrimental to tint of the United States he may by proclamation and for such period as he deem necessary suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or non-immigrants or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem appropriate.”
Cruz then sarcastically wondered, “Would you agree that is broad statutory authorization?”
Later, the Texas Senator demanded:
TED CRUZ: In the over 200 years of the Department of Justice history, are you aware of any instance in which the Department of Justice has formally approved the legality of a policy and three days later, the Attorney General has directed the department not to follow that policy and to defy that policy?
YATES: I’m not. But I’m also not aware of a situation where the Office of Legal Counsel was advised not to tell the Attorney General about it until it was over.
ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today skipped this exchange. Instead, an NBC graphic touted: “Yates’ Explosive Hearing on Hill.”
NBC reporter Peter Alexander kept the focus on Michael Flynn: “This was a dramatic day of testimony. Sally Yates, in effect, explaining that there was an urgent danger, which is why just six days after President Trump took office she alerted his administration about Michael Flynn, that he was putting the White House at risk by concealing his discussions about sanctions with Russia’s ambassador.”
On Monday, before the testimony had even happened, the networks assured viewers it would be full of “explosive” “bombshells.”
A transcript of the CBS segment is below:
CBS This Morning
5/9/17
8:03am ETNORAH O’DONNELL: The President's travel ban came up during Sally Yates testimony. Yates was fired for instructing Justice Department attorneys not to defend the order. She considered it unlawful. Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked Yates to explain why she thought it was okay to defy the President. He quoted the statute that gives the President authority over immigration.
TED CRUZ: “Whenever the President finds the entry of any alien or any class of alien in the United States would be detrimental to tint of the United States he may by proclamation and for such period as he deem necessary suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or non-immigrants or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem appropriate.” Would you agree that is broad statutory authorization?
SALLY YATES: I would. And I'm familiar with it. And I’m also familiar with an additional provision of the INA that says, “No person shall receive preference or be discriminated in issuance of a Visa because of race, nationality or place of birth.” That, I believe, was promulgated after the statute that you just quoted.
O’DONNELL: Well, she was prepared.
