Group protests Trump, Sessions resignation

Protestors lined the Broadway Bridge in Idaho Falls on Thursday, holding signs that said “Nobody is above the law” and “Protect the Mueller investigation.” This was just one of thousands of protests around the country protesting United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigning at the request of President Donald Trump and Trump then appointing Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general.

Critics are saying the appointment is unconstitutional.

“The Constitution requires that the acting deputy attorney general of the United States should be subjected to the Senate for it to carry out,” said Dr. David Adler, a constitutional scholar. “It’s advice and consent role under Article Two Section Two of the Constitution. That’s not been done; it has to be done.”

Protestors say the Mueller investigation, which is looking into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, could be in jeopardy because Whitaker has said he is against it.

“President Trump has appointed a person who has shown his loyalty to the president,” Adler said. Whitaker “believes that in fact, the Mueller investigation can be defunded, it can be defanged, it can be limited in scope.”

Protestors compared what is happening in the United States today to when President Richard Nixon was in office. They hope that by speaking out, lawmakers will hear them and do something about what is going on.

“This is sort of just another thing to kind of to just keep raising awareness and say, ‘Hey wait a minute, these things aren’t normal for democracy, these things are not normal in our constitutional republic,'” said Miranda Marquit, a member of the Idaho Falls Progressives advisory board. “And the last time these kinds of things happened we took action as a country and as lawmakers and demanded the removal of such a person.”

They also say this is a bipartisan issue that all Americans should be concerned about.

“The most disturbing part of this appointment of Mr. Whitaker is that it means that President Trump, who may well be subject or target of a criminal investigation has just hand selected, hand picked his own prosecutor,” Adler said. “Nobody in America has that right.”

There were also protests in Pocatello, Boise, Ketchum, Lewiston, Sandpoint and Twin Falls