3 Stories You Should Read 6/14/2019: Kellyanne Conway, Iran, Sarah Sanders
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In the category of: One Daughter of the Patriarchy Leaves
Sarah Sanders failed in almost every aspect of the job
Sarah Sanders said last December that when her role as White House press secretary ends, she hopes to be remembered as “honest and transparent.” I’m afraid she’s going to be remembered quite differently because of the actions of her boss, President Donald Trump, and her own failures to live up to the obligations of the office.
In the category of: Here we go again
The case is legally dubious and factually challenged.
The Trump administration keeps saying that it doesn’t want to go to war with Iran. The problem is that some top officials continue to make statements that could pave a dubiously legal and factually challenged pathway to war.
If that’s the intention, a major flare-up between Washington and Tehran could lead the administration to say it has the right to launch what would be one of the nastiest, bloodiest conflicts in modern history — even if it really doesn’t legally have that authorization.
For months, President Donald Trump and some of his top officials have claimed Iran and al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that launched the 9/11 terror attacks, are closely linked. That’s been a common refrain despite evidence showing their ties aren’t strong at all. In fact, even al-Qaeda’s own documents detail the weak connection between the two.
But insisting there’s a nefarious, continual relationship matters greatly. In 2001, Congress passed an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), allowing the president “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.”
In the category of: Another daughter of the patriarchy stays
Trump Says He Won’t Fire Kellyanne Conway Despite Ethics Violations
President Donald Trump defended senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Friday after an independent federal watchdog said she should be fired for repeatedly violating a law prohibiting government employees from political campaigning.
Trump tried to frame what a U.S. Office of Special Counsel report called Conway’s “disregard for the law” as a First Amendment issue and said he won’t remove her from his staff.
“It looks to me like they’re trying to take away her right of free speech and that’s just not fair,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.” “It really sounds to me like a free speech thing. It doesn’t sound fair.”
The Office of Special Counsel, which is different from the Justice Department office once operated by Robert Mueller, sent a report to Trump on Thursday outlining numerous occasions in which Conway violated the Hatch Act by disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity on TV and in social media.
