Today in Trump: February 6, 2017
Today in the Trump Administration
Wash., Minn. say restoring travel ban would “unleash chaos again”
Lawyers for Washington state and Minnesota have told a federal appellate court that restoring President Trump’s ban on refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries would “unleash chaos again.”
The filing with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco came early Monday after the White House said it expected the federal courts to reinstate the ban. The Trump team’s response is due at 6 p.m. ET today.
Trump claims any negative polls are “fake news”
President Trump suggested Monday morning that any polls that signal public disapproval of him, his administration or his policies should be considered “fake news.”
The president seemed to suggest on Twitter that surveys measuring the public’s opinion of his executive order that instituted the travel ban and called for extreme vetting are not accurate.
Why DeVos is Trump’s most contentious Cabinet nominee
WASHINGTON -- The debate over Betsy DeVos followed senators home this weekend as protests popped up outside the state offices of several GOP members.
In Washington the pressure is even more intense. The Senate switchboard is swamped by hundreds of thousands of phone calls.
Some Democratic senators even took their own turn at the phones, like Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump tweets about New York Times’ “total fiction concerning me”
Donald Trump attacked the “failing @nytimes” on Twitter Monday, attempting to cast doubt on its reporting.
Mr. Trump was apparently responding to a Times story published online Sunday and in the paper Monday headlined “Trump and Staff Rethinking Tactics After Stumbles.” The story relies largely on interviews with dozens of unnamed government officials, congressional aides and former Trump staffers and includes anecdotes that have not been published before. One says that the president’s aides “confer in the dark because they can’t figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room.”
Trump claims media is covering up terror attacks, citing no evidence
President Trump on Monday said that news outlets are covering up terrorist attacks without citing any evidence that supports that claim.
He made the comment in a speech to U.S. servicemembers at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida after receiving a briefing and eating lunch with troops.
The president began talking about how “radical Islamic terrorists are determined to strike our homeland” as they did on 9/11, in the Boston bombings and in San Bernardino. He said it’s also happening “all over Europe” like in Paris and Nice.
“It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. In many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons and you understand that,” Mr. Trump said.
There is no evidence that any media outlet is covering up terrorist attacks.
What you missed yesterday
Trump’s pre-Super Bowl interview
An interview with the president and Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly will air ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl game.
President Trump has chosen Vice President Mike Pence to head up a commission investigating unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud in the 2016 election.
The president made the announcement in an interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly that aired Sunday, televised just hours before the Super Bowl sporting event.
“I’m going to set up a commission to headed by Vice President Mike Pence and we’re going to look at it very, very carefully,” the president told O’Reilly.
Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, attended the game in Houston as the guest of Houston Texans owner Robert McNair, but he left before the end of the game. His motorcade arrived at the airport just as James White scored the winning touchdown for the Patriots in overtime, CBS News’ Josh Gross reported from the pool covering Pence.
Trump tweet
Mr. Trump tweeted today, after the Ninth Circuit rejected his appeal to immediately reinstate the travel ban. Complaining that the judge had “put our country in such peril,” the president tweeted, “If something “happens blame him and the court system. People pouring in. Bad!”
Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2017
Trump whereabouts
The president is in Mar-a-Lago for the weekend, the Florida property where he continues to hold weekend meetings.
Trump administration on defense over travel ban, Russia comments
Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that President Donald Trump wasn’t questioning the legitimacy of a federal judge who halted his immigration executive order when he lambasted the judge on Twitter this weekend -- he was “simply expressing a frustration.”