This may be the dumbest news story of the day, courtesy of the anti-Republican Associated Press: “Attorney general seeks resignations of 46 US attorneys.” This was blared as a breaking news story on newspaper sites across the country.
Of course the administration is asking the prior administration’s U.S. Attorneys to resign. U.S Attorneys are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president, just like the Secretary of State or the head of the EPA. Every president installs his own U.S. attorneys, who will carry out policy in line with the priorities of his Attorney General. There are 93 U.S. attorneys; why do you think Attorney General Sessions is only calling for the resignation of 46? Because the other half have already quit.
Not all of those resignations need be, or will be, accepted. Presidents sometimes keep U.S. Attorneys appointed by a predecessor in place. But in every administration, the large majority are replaced. This is not a news story of any significance.
And yet, this is exactly how the Associated Press and other news outlets destroyed Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General under George W. Bush. Gonzales replaced eight U.S. Attorneys–all of them Bush appointees–and Chuck Schumer incited the press to carry on as though it were some kind of scandal. The whole thing was absurd, but hysteria brought on by a united front of liberal news media destroyed Gonzales’s career.
So the AP figures, why not try again? Its article acknowledges that U.S. Attorneys are political appointees whose resignation is routine, and yet gives the last word to a Democratic Party operative:
Montana’s U.S. Attorney Mike Cotter said he received a phone call from Boente telling him “the president has directed this.”
“I think it’s very unprofessional and I’m very disappointed,” he said. “What happened today on Friday, March 10, that was so important that all Obama appointees who are US attorneys need to be gone?”
“I gotta write that (resignation) letter. It’s going to be a one-liner,” he added.
An absurd finish to a silly news article. Nothing happened “today, on March 10.” Rather, something happened last November 8, when Donald Trump was elected president. Like prior presidents, he is installing his own nominees as U.S. Attorneys. The AP reporter understands this, but deliberately tries to mislead readers of his story, which will appear in hundreds of newspapers.
Andy McCarthy has more.
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