What Yates and Clinton have done while in the hot seat....

[gratuitous]

13. What you mention is very clear in Sen. Cruz's questioning

He did a cold cite to the U.S. Code, asking Sally Yates if she was familiar with it. Yates did the smart thing and said, no she didn't know specifically what 8 USC Sec. 1182 says (asked cold like that, nobody does). True to his unctuous form, Cruz patiently read off the statute to tell Yates that she was wrong to refuse to defend President Dumbass's executive order. By the time Cruz had read the statute, Yates knew what he was talking about, and more importantly knew what he had left out. Namely, that the statute Cruz read was was superseded by a more specific statute. Also, Yates knew (and Cruz didn't) that neither statute was central to the administration's argument before the court, and there was no way to turn an order that is unconstitutional on its face into something constitutional.

So, not only did Yates know Cruz's argument better than he did, she knew the argument he should have made, and then she told him why neither argument would have prevailed.