REPORT: Trump Admin Is Lying About Briefing Dept. Of Homeland Security Chief Before Signing Muslim-Ban
The Trump administration spent the weekend claiming that they did, in fact, brief various government agencies and people on Capitol Hill. Well it turns out they are lying again. The New York Times is reporting that the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security learned about Donald Trump’s Muslim-ban executive order when Trump signed it on television.
According to the New York Times:
As President Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Friday, shutting the borders to refugees and others from seven largely Muslim countries, the secretary of homeland security was on a White House conference call getting his first full briefing on the global shift in policy.
Gen. John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, had dialed in from a Coast Guard plane as he headed back to Washington from Miami. Along with other top officials, he needed guidance from the White House, which had not asked his department for a legal review of the order.
Halfway into the briefing, someone on the call looked up at a television in his office. “The president is signing the executive order that we’re discussing,” the official said, stunned.
The complete lack of communication from the White House created a chaotic weekend as it seemed no one in the federal government was prepared for how to enforce Donald Trump’s Muslim-ban.
Secretary of Defence was also caught off guard
Secretary of Defense James Mattis was also apparently caught off guard by Trump signing the Muslim-ban Executive Order – according to the New York Times.
The Times reports that Secretary Mattis reportedly did not see the order’s final draft until just before Donald Trump signed it in front of him at his ceremonial swearing-in at the Pentagon. Mattis has been a critic of what Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban” during the presidential campaign.
According to the Times, “Last summer, Mr. Mattis sharply criticized Mr. Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration as a move that was ‘causing us great damage right now, and it’s sending shock waves through the international system.'”
Rank and file were completely in the dark
The New York Times went on to quote one customs officer who felt blindsided by the Trump Order he would be charged with helping to enforce. He “said he was given a limited briefing about what to do as he went to his post on Saturday morning, but even managers seemed unclear. People at the agency were blindsided, he said, and are still trying to figure things out, even as people are being stopped from coming into the United States.
‘If the secretary doesn’t know anything, how could we possibly know anything at this level?’ the officer said, referring to Mr. Kelly.”
