Spicer: Trump ‘Doing Exactly What He Said He Was Going to Do’

Instead, Spicer, during a White House press briefing Tuesday, made explicit a line other administration officials have used implicitly: that the immigration order is just about screening travelers to the USA, not about keeping people from living here. Spicer said the Trump administration will work closely with media but said media intentionally emphasize the negatives about the administration while the positives are ignored.

“It was accurate”, Times reporter Glenn Thrush shouted out.

Security expert Dr. Bessma Momani at the University of Waterloo also said the travel ban has no benefit to national security, calling the countries which were targeted arbitrary.

NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker said, “The president himself called it a ban”.

The Administration has however shown no signs of backing down and the US Department of Homeland Security has said that it would continue to enforce the order but comply with the court’s order.

Mr. Spicer came to GW to participate in a discussion with Frank Sesno, School of Media and Public Affairs director, as part of a forum on Mr. Trump’s relationship with the media, “Does Trump Need the News Media?”

“He’s going to implement things that are in the best interest of protecting this country prospectively, not reactively”, he said of Trump.

The deadly shooting in a Quebec mosque on Sunday (Jan. 29) justified the Trump administration’s stance on immigration, Spicer said. But President Trump has done pretty well so far in this regard.

Spicer noted that Trump has “significant calls” with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who is in Washington on Monday, and there are other countries in the Middle East that want to fight back against the threat of the Islamic State.

“But those were his words”, a reporter said. Spicer responded, “NBC News reporting is based on the New York Times false reporting”.

Spicer went on to defend Trump’s Muslim ban by making repeated references to President Obama’s 2011 policy temporarily delaying visas for Iraqis, which is wildly misleading given the fact that the two policies have very little in common.

Signers of dissent cables are protected from retribution from superiors, and the State Department’s official response to the draft memo was less confrontational.