White House defends travel ban as provocations mount
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Donald Trump speaks as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe listens as they both made statements about North Korea at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla.
PALM BEACH, Fla. >> A top White House aide renewed support for President Donald Trump’s embattled immigration order and praised a surge in deportations Sunday, as the new president faces a new provocation in the form of an apparent missile test by North Korea.
The White House continues to weigh its options following a legal blow last week to Trump’s immigration order suspending the nation’s refugee program and barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s chief policy adviser and one of the architects of the order, maintained in a round of Sunday show interviews that the president has sweeping executive authority when it comes to barring foreigners he deems pose a risk to the country. He said Trump will do “whatever we need to do, consistent with the law, to keep this country safe” and slammed judges who’ve stood in his way.
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“This is a judicial usurpation of the power. It is a violation of judges’ proper roles in litigating disputes. We will fight it,” Miller said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
As for the administration’s next steps, Miller said that “all options” remain on the table,” including a Supreme Court appeal. Trump said on the plane ride to Florida on Friday that he was considering signing a “brand new order” as early as Monday to try to bypass the legal challenges.
“As you know, we have multiple options, and we are considering all of them,” Miller said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The comments come amid an outcry from immigration activists over an “enforcement surge” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that officials say is targeting immigrants who are in the country illegally and have criminal records.
Advocacy groups contend the government has rounded up large numbers of people as part of stepped-up enforcement. The agency calls the effort no different from enforcement actions carried out in the past.
But Trump and Miller appeared eager to take credit for the action.
“The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!” Trump tweeted.
Added Miller on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “We’re going to focus on public safety and saving American lives and we will not apologize.”
In the meantime, Miller insisted it wasn’t up to him to say whether the president retains confidence in national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has come under scrutiny for his contact with the Russians before Trump’s inauguration.
Miller repeated in several interviews that the White House hadn’t given him anything specific to say about Flynn during his appearances on the Sunday news shows. Miller called a report that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions in calls with Russia’s ambassador while President Barack Obama was still in office “a sensitive matter” best answered by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence or chief of staff Reince Priebus.
Trump has spent the weekend in Florida at his sprawling Mar-a-Lago estate, holding meetings, making calls, golfing and hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
For most of Saturday, Trump and the Japanese prime minister played golf under the Florida sun to get to know one another and show the world the U.S.-Japan alliance remained strong. A surprise provocation by the North Koreans provided a more significant example of cooperation.
After North Korea reportedly launched a ballistic missile, the two leaders appeared for hastily prepared statements in a ballroom of Trump’s south Florida estate late Saturday. Abe spoke first and longest.
“North Korea’s most recent missile launch is absolutely intolerable,” Abe said through a translator. He added that the North must comply fully with relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, but also noted that Trump had assured him that the U.S. supported Japan.
“President Trump and I myself completely share the view that we are going to promote further cooperation between the two nations. And also we are going to further reinforce our alliance,” he said.
Trump followed Abe with even fewer words, saying in part: “I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent.” With that, they left the room.
Miller said on ABC that the joint appearance marked “an important show of solidarity between the United States and Japan.”
“Last night, what you saw was the president of the United States sending a powerful and unmistakable signal to North Korea and the entire world as he stood shoulder to shoulder with the prime minister of Japan and declared our steadfast and unwavering support of the alliance,” he added on “Fox News Sunday.”
Trump is to remain in Florida through Sunday evening and is scheduled to meet with his pick for treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and his longtime friend-turned-Republican National Committee finance chair Steve Wynn, before heading back to Washington.
22 responses to “White House defends travel ban as provocations mount”
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Now batting for Kellyanne Conway, Miller said, “what you saw was the president of the United States sending a powerful and unmistakable signal to North Korea.” Really? Playing golf sends a powerful and unmistakable signal? When Trump said that the North Korean missile test was “not gonna happen,” I guess he was drawing a line in the sand trap.
Miller seems to be the new designated liar on the Sunday shows, reprising Trump’s top lies of the week — like 5 million illegal voters and Massachusetts voters being bussed into New Hampshire to vote again.
On the biggest story of the week, Michael Flynn being exposed as a liar about his illegal contacts with Russian agents, Miller could only say that the White House hadn’t given him anything to say. That was a polite way of letting Flynn know that he should start clearing out his desk. When the White House declines to defend someone who has been making headlines this negative, it’s sayonara time. The CIA also declined to give a security clearance to one of Flynn’s top aides, and there are calls for Flynn to lose his clearance.
Spicer should probably ask Flynn if he can borrow the packing boxes when he’s finished as Trump officials are reported to have been interviewing his likely replacement. Will he make it through week #4 of the most chaotic administration rollout in recent history?
Entertaining with one another allows people to get to know one another better hopefully for the better. Would you rather U.S. don’t keep strong ties and back them against North Korea?
Regarding voters there are 2 sides to this story. Hopefully the American people will be given the evidence to prove who is telling the truth or lying.
In the Trump organization there are people who are working against Trump for the political powers that is losing their power, jobs and their way of life. Good that the Trump presidency clears out those that need to be cleared out sooner than later. There a few working places that all people are for one another where hatred, jealousy and the right for more money and power exists. Yes very few. However you will find the exceptions and you are welcome to name a few.
This goes to show the opposition (the swamp dwellers) everyone’s job cannot be taken for granted. Having to relieve one of his own due to the criteria set forth imagine those positions that Trump will find that needs to go in the rest of the government which creates more waste than results for the good of the American people.
“Regarding voters there are 2 sides to this story.” The 2 sides are: facts and lies.
Justin Levitt, a professor at the Loyola Law School, Los Angeles and an expert in constitutional law and the law of democracy, with a particular focus on election administration and redistricting, conducted the most exhaustive study of voter fraud to date. He wrote he “found about 31 different incidents (some of which involve multiple ballots) since 2000, anywhere in the country. To put this in perspective, the 31 incidents below come in the context of general, primary, special, and municipal elections from 2000 through 2014. In general and primary elections alone, more than 1 billion ballots were cast in that period.”
I would like to know exactly how Levitt checked more than 1 billion ballots to determine if the people who voted were eligible to vote.
IRT Ronin006: Levitt did not check 1 billion ballots. Out of elections totaling 1 billion ballots he discovered only 31 cases of reported voter fraud. Here’s a link to the report: http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/The%20Truth%20About%20Voter%20Fraud.pdf
In spreading this lie, Trump, Conway, Miller and their lying accomplices have, without a shred of evidence, collaborated with Putin to discredit American democracy.
Washington Post fact checker on Miller’s lies about voter fraud:
“The Pinocchio Test
“Stephanopoulos is right. The White House continues to provide zero evidence to back up its claims of voter fraud. Officials instead retreat to the same bogus talking points that have been repeatedly shown to be false.
“It’s pretty shameless to cite research in a way that even the researcher says is inappropriate, and yet Miller keeps saying 14 percent of noncitizens are registered to vote. The Republican governor of New Hampshire has admitted that he was wrong to say buses of illegal voters voted in the election, and yet Miller shamelessly suggests that is the case. Miller cites a supposed expert on voter fraud, Kobach, who has been mocked for failing to prove his own claims of voter fraud. Miller also repeats a claim about people being registered to vote in two states, even though that is not an example of voter fraud.
“Miller earns Four Pinocchios — over and over again.
Four Pinocchios”
IRT BSdetection..so far there has not been anybody put forth any credible evidence of voter fraud. It’s hard to believe people still are electing to swallow alternative facts. I’ve been waiting to this administration to really start making me feel proud of who we elected. Seems I’ll have to wait a long time.
This administration seems to rely on alternative facts instead of true facts. Seems like everywhere you turn it one controversy after another. the latest with Flynn is the most incredible to date. They even got the VP giving out alternative facts. I wonder how he feels about this. Flynn’s story about what he discussed went from “I did not…” to “I don’t remember…” just got his nose to grow a bit longer.
My favorite…dare I say her name, Coulter opines that they way we’ll get Mexico to pay for the wall is to withhold the aid we GIVE to Mexico to the amount of what the wall will cost. Excuse me but isn’t that OUR money that we give in aid? How does his equate to Mexico paying for the construction?
37-year-old rosa maria ortega was just convicted of voter fraud in texas and sentenced to an 8 year prison term. The problem for republicans? Ortega is a registered republican. Who knows? Maybe trump is right, and there was a lot of voter fraud…but that was how he got elected!!
His lack of social etiquette was very noticeable on TV appearing with Premier Abe and his wife. His advisors need to work with him.
This man has only known people who bend to his presence. They all kowtow and make him feel good about himself. Now he has to give respect on the lame level and deal with people who won’t bow to him. As you stated, it will take a whole lot of work and self reflection. They do say that this office doesn’t change. It changes the person.
If Trump wants a travel ban he should include Saudi Arabia and Russia, but he’s afraid of the head of government in those countries.
IRT el burro sabio….he’s not afraid of the leaders. He’s afraid of what will happen to his businesses in those countries.
The disarray and turmoil in the White House will be the big story next week. Today, in an interview with CNN, Trump’s pal and Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy said that he spent 30 minutes with Trump on Friday and recommended that Trump replace his chief of staff. He told CNN that Priebus does not understand how federal agencies operate, and he said three Cabinet secretaries later praised his criticism. Think about this — someone spends 30 minutes with Trump and then goes public with comments that eviscerate Priebus. Trump had to have known that Ruddy would do this, and Priebus’ credibility in Washington has now been destroyed. Priebus, Flynn and Spicer are all circling the drain.
bs- I like your analytical points, don’t stop!
Watch what’s happening with Michael Flynn closely. It is very significant that the White House did not defend him on the Sunday shows. Flynn was one of the major news stories of the week, and the White House sent Stephen Miller out to make the rounds of the Sunday shows, but when he was asked about Flynn, the best he could do was say that the White House hadn’t told him what to say. That’s known as a deafening silence. Flynn made illegal calls to Russian agents and the FBI monitored those calls. Until last Wednesday, Flynn emphatically denied that sanctions were discussed in those calls. Suddenly, on Thursday, he dropped the denials. Did the FBI gave him a hint about what they knew? He also lied to Pence. Now, there are two possibilities — Flynn also lied to Trump, in which case he should be fired or Trump knew about the calls in which case Trump is in deep trouble too. But knowledge of the calls about the sanctions may be the least of Trump’s problems. If, has been suggested, the FBI is also investigating pre-election contacts between Flynn and the Russians and if those calls included any mention of hacking or of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaigns, then the big question will be “what did the President know and when did he know it?” (where have we heard that question before?) Thinking about the possibilities, Republican leaders have to be terrified. And they know that they can’t get an honest answer from Trump, a pathological liar. Republican leaders, who have not been coming to Flynn’s defense, have to be hoping that Trump cuts Flynn lose asap. Correction: there was one Republican defending Flynn now that he has been caught lying — Chris Christie — if you want someone to defend a liar, call on an expert.
Why would it be so bad if Flynn actually did discuss sanctions with the Russians before the inauguration? What does it really matter except for the fact you think Flynn was caught in a lie? Why do you oppose better relations with Russia, which clearly are in the best interests of the US and Russia?
In areas where we have overlapping interests such as fighting terrorism, it makes sense for us to cooperate with Russia as much as possible. Together, Isis and other muslim terror groups would not stand a chance.
IRT saywhatyouthink: Flynn violated the Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799 ) that is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments having a dispute with the U.S. It was intended to prevent the undermining of the government’s position.
Why are trumpf fingers always in the position of “rolling” a buggar.
Or in local terms “boogah”.
Google “Muslims taking over Europe”.
What a f—-ng mess
Excuse me, but what did North Korea’s action have to the executive order?