Sally Yates, who served as acting attorney general for former President Trump for 10 days in 2017 before being fired, expressed surprise in a new interview that she’s now cheering on Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who was dumped from House GOP leadership on Wednesday over her criticism of Trump.
“I never thought that I’d be saying, ‘Yeah, go Liz Cheney.’ But I am,” Yates said during a an episode of David Axelrod’s podcast
In the episode of “The Axe Files with David Axelrod,” Yates told the CNN commentator that while she champions Cheney’s strength for not backing down, she believes that it is a “sad commentary” that people are cheering for her for just telling the truth.
“And again, isn’t it a sad commentary that we’re cheering her on for simply telling the truth and for refusing to be silent when others are not?” Yates told Axelrod. “She is being punished for telling the truth. And I certainly never thought our country would come to that.”
Yates also mentions to Axelrod her thoughts on the Jan.6 riots at the Capitol, saying that she did not anticipate a “violent insurrection” would happen at the Capitol.
“And I think all of us watched with horror that day at what was happening at our nation’s Capitol with also a feeling of, OK, this has to be it. Regardless of where one is on the political spectrum, surely we can all agree that this can never happen again — that this is going at the very bedrock of our democracy,” Yates said.
“And it seemed like that lasted for maybe a week or so. Maybe a little bit longer than that. And then even there it is dissipated now. We can’t even unify around that,” she said.
Yates, was fired by Trump for insubordination after refusing to defend a controversial immigration order from him that effectively banned travel from a number of majority-Muslim countries.
The podcast episode was released Thursday.