The NeverTrumpers are virtue signalling en masse that we never would have put up with a President Obama who demanded a pledge of loyalty from a cabinet-level officer who's actual loyalty lay with the Constitution, had he done that.
Well here's the thing: President Obama did do that, or so it seems -- we don't have the full conversation (Gates did not apparently write a memo about it immediately after it occurs). At the very least, the conversation seems to have gone into the area of Gates' loyalty to Obama -- with Gates pledging loyalty, of a kind.
Why did Gates go down this road? Certainly seems like Obama must have prompted him along these lines, no?
I'm going to assume the answer "Yes," because people don't routinely pledge loyalty to individual men without that being sought.
Even if you somehow believe Gates pledged loyalty to Obama without prompting, then you'd have to take Gates as expert testimony that people who actually work in the upper reaches of official DC understand that if you want a job, or want to keep your job, you're expected to tell a president you're loyal to him.
And, frankly, I gotta say, the politics in DC are right now so obvious and obviously rotten that the first question I'd have for anyone -- including law enforcement and intelligence officials, who naive authority-worshiping conservatives childishly still maintain are above any such doubt -- is "Are you actually working for the Democrat Establishment?"
I trust Bob Gates understand better what the normal and usual course of conduct is in Official DC then some gadfly writers imagining a movie-set ideal of how Washington works.
The NeverTrumpers didn't make any noise about Gates' statement. In fact, no one did. I think it's only being revealed now. Still, now that it has been revealed, they haven't exactly rushed to point out this problem with their own Narrative. . .
Loyalty is a reasonable request for POTUS to make of a senior government official. https://t.co/06qiDkYhRQ … pic.twitter.com/LQ4MZjDiy7— Bobby Brown (@b2pilgram) June 7, 2017
Hmmm, "will not leak."
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