The web page hosting the December 2015 statement, included a quote from then-candidate Trump reading, "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States", and was still live ahead of the White House press briefing Monday.
Donald Trump continues to be a poor character witness for himself as the government struggles to convince court after court that the president's efforts to ban immigration from several majority-Muslim countries are not unconstitutional.
The language remained in place up until Monday afternoon, when ABC News reporter Cecilia Vega asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the administration's insistence that it is not a "Muslim ban". The only way for President Trump to actually, finally enact his "Muslim ban" is to convince courts it's not a Muslim ban at all. The 9th Circuit is scheduled to hear another challenge to the revised travel ban next week. In other words, for a court to be able to determine whether an order is constitutional, the judges must read and understand the ramifications of the order's text, not rely on their own presumptions regarding the intentions or campaign pronouncements of the executive - intentions that are not expressly written in the order or law.
That decision came just after a broader one issued in Hawaii that halted both the travel ban and a 120-day suspension of the US refugee admissions program. "Its text doesn't have to anything to do with religion", argued U.S. solicitor general Jeffrey Wall.
"This is not a Muslim ban".
The President issued a revised executive order in March after his earlier immigration ban was blocked by federal courts.
The Trump administration argued that these statements made on the campaign trail should not be considered when reviewing the constitutionality of the ban. "Its operation doesn't have anything to do with religion", acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall told the court, according to Time.
James Comey Fired After Finding 'Evidence Of Collusion' Between Trump & Russia
The case for firing Comey laid out by Rosenstein centered largely on Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email case. Van Hollen repeated his call for a special prosecutor to be appointed to lead the Russian Federation investigation.
Minutes later the statement, which called for a lockdown until "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on", had disappeared from the website.
The Trump administration has repeatedly said the ban doesn't target Islam and is focused on national security and reducing terror threats.
But the Republican appointed judges on the panel also turned on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who brought the lawsuit.
"The order is completely unprecedented in our nation's history", Jadwat said.
The future of US President Trump's travel ban could rest on his previous comments about Muslims. "Can we look at his college speeches?"
Trump has vowed to fight the latest "flawed" ruling all the way to the Supreme Court.
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