THE PHONY ISSUE – AT 12:44 P.M. ET:  So Trump fired a bunch of US attorneys.  So what?  It's done every time there's a change of administrations.  But this is Trump, so it has to be a scandal.  From Fox: 

Media outrage over the Trump administration’s decision to sack 46 federal prosecutors landed with a thud when they were quickly reminded that former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had done the same thing, but some in the press have pivoted with a new spin.

It’s outrageous, NBC’s Chuck Todd said, because Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who was summarily fired by President Clinton as a U.S. Attorney in 1993) fired Preet Bharara. After all, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York was on the cover of Time magazine in 2012 and has been touted as a fearless anti-corruption crusader.

“I think it's only getting more attention because of Preet Bharara, to be honest,” Todd said when his “Sunday Today” colleague, Willie Geist, asked him why the Trump administration’s move was any different from Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno, firing 93 U.S. Attorneys.

ABC’s David Wright noted that such prosecutor purges have happened before but, according to the Media Research Center, treated that fact as just a convenient excuse for the White House.

“One big difference is that the Trump Justice Department is already embroiled in controversy,” Wright said. “Investigating Russian meddling in the election. Including allegations, Trump campaign officials may have colluded. The attorney general himself is under scrutiny.”

CNN, in a Friday story headlined "Anger mounts over handling of US attorney firings," said the problem with Trump's move is that he didn't give the prosecutors adequate warning.

COMMENT:  There's no great issue here.  True, Preet Bharara is something of a star, and both the president and Jeff Sessions, during the campaign, indicated that they wanted him to stay on.  However, that wasn't a commitment, and Bharara may still be asked to return.  Bharara was the only US attorney who refused to resign, and had to be fired.  Bad form on his part.  A US attorney serves at the pleasure of the president, and resigns when requested.  Bharara's refusal was possibly seen by the White House as an act of rudeness, something Trump doesn't appreciate.

March 13, 2017