The Return of Sally Yates: Today's News for May 9th

In case you forgot, here is the Sally Yates story again. Sadly, this sour grapes story is front page news again, for both Fox and CNN...

Fox News: 

Sally Yates: Lawsuit seeks former acting attorney general's emails

A new lawsuit is seeking access to emails sent and received by Sally Yates during her 10-day tenure as acting attorney general in President Donald Trump's administration.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, filed Monday by the conservative group Judicial Watch, is seeking emails from Yates' government account between Jan. 21 and Jan. 31 of this year.

"Between her involvements in the Russian surveillance scandal and her lawless effort to thwart President Trump’s immigration executive order, Sally Yates [sic] short tenure as the acting Attorney General was remarkably troubling,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “Her email traffic might provide a window into how the anti-Trump ‘deep state’ abused the Justice Department."

Why does an FOIA request become front page news?

On Monday, Yates told a Senate subcommittee that she had warned Trump's White House Counsel Don McGahn on Jan. 26 that then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn "essentially could be blackmailed" by Russia over his contacts with that country's ambassador. Trump asked Flynn to resign his position Feb. 13. 

That sounds suspiciously like a buried lede story.

On the other hand, CNN gets the lede right, but then turns up the "melodrama" (their word):

CNN:

After Yates, more questions for the Trump White House

Sally Yates didn't bring a smoking gun to the latest episode of the long-running political melodrama entwining the White House and Russia.

But in a Senate hearing on Monday, the former acting attorney general produced just enough fresh intrigue to offer Democrats a new opening in the war of attrition they are waging against Donald Trump's presidency.

"Fresh intrigue"? "War of attrition"? This might be a good movie, if it weren't a tired re-run of a stale sitcom.

Back to the alleged story:

In her long-awaited first public accounting of her dealings with the Trump administration, Yates testified that she explicitly warned White House counsel Donald McGahn in January that former national security adviser Michael Flynn had been compromised and could be a target for Russian blackmail.

Her intervention provoked an awkward new question that the White House will now have to answer. Why did it then take 18 days for Flynn to be fired -- a step that only took place when The Washington Post reported he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his calls with Russia's envoy to Washington?

Then we get the whole reason for this alleged lede story:

The revelations did not in themselves represent a development that could break open the mystery of Moscow's meddling with last year's election and increasingly vocal Democratic claims of collusion between Moscow members of the President's inner circle.

But they did cast new doubt on Trump's judgment in choosing Flynn, a controversial Washington figure, for such a crucial job in the first place -- on a day when it emerged that outgoing President Barack Obama counseled him to pick another national security adviser.

Really? News flash for CNN: Rookie presidents make mistakes.

Sorry CNN, but you get the eye roll award for this one:

Speaking of mistakes...

The Hill:

Trump voters lament deportation of their neighbor

A Sunday “60 Minutes” report detailed the story of Roberto Beristain, an immigrant deported to Mexico after being in the U.S. for nearly 20 years.

Family and friends of the Granger, Ind., business owner spoke with the CBS News program, expressing frustration that someone with no criminal record was separated from his wife and children, who are all citizens.

“It just feels wrong,” Kimberly Glowacki, a resident of the same town, told “60 Minutes.”

Michelle Craig, who voted for President Trump, said she did so because Trump promised to deport dangerous criminals.

"This is not the person he said he would deport,” she said. “The community is better for having someone like” Beristain in it.

Beristain was the longtime cook and new owner of a restaurant in town, “Eddie’s Steak Shed,” that employs about 20 people, “60 Minutes” noted. He had no criminal record. He entered the U.S. in 1998 illegally but had been issued a temporary work permit, Social Security number and drivers license under the Obama administration.

That phrasing is important: "He had no criminal record" but "He entered the U.S. in 1998 illegally". That is like saying Ted Bundy had no criminal record when he was arrested for serial killing. Not having a criminal record doesn't justify the criminal act.

Whether the law is right or not, what is the point of having a law if it isn't enforced? A discussion on what immigration law should be is separate to the actual enforcement of it should be.

Regardless, this story is an example of what I call "I told ya so" journalism. This is where a politically biased reporter finds voters who suffer under the president whom the journalist doesn't like. There were a lot of similar articles on the Right after Obamacare went live and Obama's voters lost their health insurance or doctor or both.