Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is throwing her support behind Joe Biden’s 2020 White House bid.
Yates, a career federal prosecutor who was fired in 2017 for refusing to enforce the Trump administration’s travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, announced her endorsement on Thursday, emphasizing that there is “too much at stake” to remain apolitical.
“I am supporting Joe Biden for President because I trust him. I trust him to always put the country’s interests before his own; to tell us the truth; to appeal to our best, not our worst, instincts; to unite rather than divide us; and to always treat the presidency as a privilege rather than an entitlement,” she said in a statement released by the Biden campaign.
“I am not a political person. But there is too much at stake now for any of us to sit on the sidelines,” she continued. “This is indeed a battle for the soul of America — who we are, or at least who we have always aspired to be. While our country can survive four years of our current president, at the end of eight years, I fear that we will not recognize the nation that we have become. But the future of our country is up to us. We have a choice.”
Yates added, “Our country needs Joe Biden. And I am proud to support him.”
The former vice president, who is rumored to be considering Yates as his attorney general pick and once floated her as a possible running mate, currently holds the lead in the Democratic nominating process with 838 delegates. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is in second with 691, and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard remains in last with only two delegates.
Prior to Super Tuesday, Biden was endorsed by a slew of centrist Democrats who ended their own presidential campaigns, including Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
Yates, who was appointed deputy attorney general by Barack Obama, was temporarily in the attorney general position during the early days of the Trump administration while then-nominee Jeff Sessions awaited confirmation.
