The HuffPost reports:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) attempted to school career federal prosecutor Sally Yates on the law, and it did not go well. While the hearing was focused on Trump and his associates’ alleged ties to Russia, some senators, including Cruz, instead focused on Yates’ refusal to defend the president’s executive order. While questioning that decision, Cruz, also a lawyer, cited a portion of U.S. code that allows the president to block immigrants from entering the country if allowing such entry would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” Yates immediately fired back by citing another statute that says visas cannot be denied due to someone’s race, nationality or place of birth.
Here’s the Yates quote:
“I’m also familiar with an additional provision of the INA that says ‘no person shall receive preference or be discriminated against in issuance of a visa because of race, nationality or place of birth.’ That, I believe, was promulgated after the statute that you just quoted. And that’s been part of the discussion with the courts with respect to the INA is whether this more specific statute trumps the first one that you just described. But my concern was not an INA concern here. It rather was a Constitutional concern, whether or not the executive order here violated the Constitution specifically with the establishment clause and equal protection and due process.”
Yates just OWNED Ted Cruz.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) May 8, 2017
So hard to figure out why no one in the Senate can stand Ted Cruz… #YatesHearing
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) May 8, 2017
This is so delicious it's better than the chocolate cake at Mar-A-Lago. Sally Yates is having Ted Cruz for lunch.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) May 8, 2017
Ted Cruz doing his part here to help Sally Yates launch her political career, should she want one.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) May 8, 2017
ted cruz: LOUD NOISES
sally yates: sit. be quiet. learn.— Oliver Willis (@owillis) May 8, 2017