Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred to Hawaii as an island in the Pacific and appeared shocked that one of the 50 states could block Trump’s Muslim ban.
Audio:
Sessions said on The Mark Levin Show, “We’ve got cases moving in the very, very liberal Ninth Circuit, who, they’ve been hostile to the order. We won a case in Virginia recently that was a nicely-written order that just demolished, I thought, all the arguments that some of the other people have been making. We are confident that the President will prevail on appeal and particularly in the Supreme Court, if not the Ninth Circuit. So this is a huge matter. I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power.”
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This was the Attorney General of the United States talking, someone who Senate Republicans assured America was super duper qualified and would be an independent voice.
One would hope that Sessions knows that Hawaii is a state, and his refusal to reference it by name was designed to insult the US citizens who live in the state. The problem is that the Attorney General appears to imply that the Judicial Branch of the US government should not be able to act as a check on the power of the President. This is much more concerning issue that if Sessions understands that federal circuit judges in all 50 states have the power to rule on the president’s action when a challenge comes before them.
Sessions was hinting at a theory of presidential power that is authoritarian and undemocratic.
If Jeff Sessions was stunned that a judge in Hawaii can check Trump, the rest of us are stunned that Jeff Sessions is the Attorney General of the United States.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
