ABC News(WASHINGTON) — White House press secretary Sean Spicer defended President Donald Trump’s handling of the dismissal of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, taking aim at then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates in the process.
“The decision that we made was the right one. The president made a decision. He stands by it,” Spicer said.
This defense came amid multiple questions over why there was an 18-day gap between the time Yates first notified the White House Counsel that Flynn could have been compromised over conflicting summaries of his conversations with Russian Ambassador to the U.S Sergey Kislyak.
Spicer said that after the White House first viewed the evidence and materials on Feb. 2, which were first flagged by Yates on Jan. 26, there were various meetings and discussions that took place leading up to the request for Flynn’s resignation on Feb. 13.
He described that 11-day period between the White House seeing the materials and Flynn being fired as a time dedicated to “an element of due process” during which they reviewed “the situation.”
On Feb. 2, “that’s when the full sort of review began,” Spicer said.
Spicer also took a shot at Yates for her alleged personal political biases, which he said could have influenced the Trump administration’s willingness to act on the information.
Spicer described Yates, who was an Obama appointee, as “someone who is not exactly a supporter of the president’s agenda.”
“The president acted decisively. The process worked,” Spicer said.
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