Sessions is still miffed that a judge from Hawaii ("an island in the Pacific") saw the Muslim Ban for what it was. 'Dog whistle politics' indeed.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about the travel ban. You're taking some heat for comments you've made on the Mark Levin show this week. I want to play them for our audience.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SESSIONS: 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.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS; Of course, that island in the Pacific is the state of Hawaii. You've been blasted by Hawaii's senators, one called it dog whistle politics. Your response?
SESSIONS: Look, they filed a suit, the plaintiffs get to chose the venue. They filed a lawsuit in Hawaii. And the first decision on the new executive order came out of Hawaii. And all I was saying was the president...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Why not just call it the state of Hawaii?
SESSIONS: The president -- nobody has a sense of humor anymore. Look. The president has to deal with the Department of Defense, the national intelligence agencies, CIA. He knows the threats to this country. He is responsible for protecting America.
This order is lawful. It's within his authority constitutionally and explicit statutory authority. We're going to defend that order all the way up. And so you do have a situation in which one judge out of 700 in America has stopped this order.
I think it's a mistake. And we're going to battle in the courts and I think we'll eventually win.
UPDATE: John Amato:
AG Sessions had a chance to say he was only joking on Friday, when CNN's Kate Bolduan asked him if he wanted to pull back from smearing Hawaii and the judge as he did and he refused.
Bolduan replied, "Did you wish you had phrased that differently now?
Sessions said, "Well, I don't know that I said anything that I would want to phrase differently. No, we're going to defend the president's order."
This pompous authoritarian fool has enormous power and it's scary.
