“Michael Flynn is somebody who honorably served our country in uniform for over 30 years,” said Spicer. “And I think, as he’s noted, Lt. Gen. Flynn was asked for his resignation because he misled the vice president. But beyond that, I think he did have an honorable career, he served with distinction in uniform for over 30 years and the president does not want to smear a good man.”
Now consider the record of Sally Yates. Funny thing — she has a nearly three-decade-long record of serving her country, first as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Georgia. She worked a number of high-profile cases before being appointed by President Obama to serve as U.S. attorney for that district. From there, she worked her way up to deputy attorney general at the Justice Department led by Loretta Lynch. She became acting attorney general in the Trump administration, as then-Sen. Jeff Sessions was awaiting Senate confirmation.
So how did Spicer characterize Yates’s record of public service? “Let’s look at again how this came down. Someone who is not exactly a supporter of the president’s agenda, who a couple days after this first conversation took place, refused to uphold a lawful order of the president, who is not exactly somebody who’s excited about President Trump or his agenda. She had come here, given us a heads up, told us there were some materials.”
In subsequent remarks, Spicer again diminished Yates as a “political opponent.” Pressed on his portrayal of this long-standing Justice Department official, Spicer said, “Appointed by the Obama administration and a strong supporter of Clinton.” Then he was forced to explain that remark. “I think she’s made some, you know, I think it was widely rumored to play a large role in the Justice Department if Hillary Clinton had won,” Spicer said.
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Just to complete the hit job, Spicer saddled Yates with the offense of leaving “unclear” some key issues in her first meeting with the White House. “The reason that she was asked to come back the second day was because it clearly wasn’t that clear on the first day. I think logic dictates you don’t ask someone to come back and explain themselves a second time if they have done an effective job the first time,” said Spicer. Logic also dictates you don’t ask someone to come back and explain themselves a second time if you listened properly the first time.
That judgment on professional clarity comes from a fellow who once said this: “I think that it is interesting, the level of or the lack of interest that I’ve seen in these developments when it goes in one direction versus, where I think it was going, where other, other amounts of interest that have come from this room and beyond. I am somewhat surprised in terms of the level of interest that I’ve seen from the press corps — one set of developments versus another set of developments. That being said, I’m not going to start getting into a further discussion of that.”
Standing before the lectern, Spicer refused to acknowledge that Yates’s move to apprise the White House about Flynn was vindicated by subsequent events. “Could you not assume that she was vindicated by that review of the evidence?” asked White House reporter Major Garrett.
Spicer’s response: “No, I don’t think you should assume anything.” Especially when doing so would credit the earnest work of a woman who can be conveniently smeared as a politically motivated lawyer.