Posted on 02/08/2017 7:47:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind
He’s being an awfully good soldier here for his boss. “This is all on me,” Kelly insists in describing the initial confusion over Trump’s travel ban order. Is that so? Here’s how the Times reported the rollout of the order:
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.
Supposedly Kelly was being briefed for the first time on the new policy literally as it was taking effect. CNN’s sources heard similar stories of him and DHS being blindsided, although in their timeline Kelly gets a peek at the final order shortly before Trump signs it:
It wasn’t until Friday — the day Trump signed the order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and suspending all refugee admission for 120 days — that career homeland security staff were allowed to see the final details of the order, a person familiar with the matter said…
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Department of Homeland Security leadership saw the final details shortly before the order was finalized, government officials said.
That same story claimed that DHS had initially interpreted the order so that it didn’t apply to green-card holders — only to be overruled by Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, who wanted green-card holders admitted into the U.S. on a case-by-case basis. That’s another reason for Kelly to take a “buck stops here” line on all of this during his congressional testimony today: He’s not just taking one for the team, he’s reclaiming some of his authority after it was undermined by stories like the ones above. Bad enough for the head of Homeland Security to be out of the loop on a major change to U.S. visa policy and taking orders from Steve Bannon on how to carry it out, but for a respected former general who’s trying to earn the confidence of his new departmental deputies, it’s intolerable. The point of Kelly insisting that he should have delayed the policy, I think, is to convey the idea that it was within his power to delay it, even if Bannon and Miller wanted it implemented ASAP. Whether that’s true or not, who knows.
He also offered this explanation for why the policy was rushed out on such short notice to agencies like DHS:
“The thinking was to get it out quick so that potentially people that might be coming here to harm us would not take advantage of some period of time they could jump on an airplane and get here,” he said.
That would make more sense if Trump hadn’t made strong borders and anti-terrorism some of the splashiest parts of his presidential campaign, replete with the idea of a temporary global ban on Muslims entering the U.S. in 2015. Any element of surprise that the borders might be shut, however briefly, if and when Trump became president is long, long, long gone. A jihadi intent on entering would have made his arrangements while Obama was still in office, knowing that travel could suddenly become much more difficult under the new administration. You can’t spend two years telegraphing a move like this and then insist that you had to act fast as an excuse for a sloppy, chaotic rollout, but Kelly’s doing his best here to work with what he’s got. If nothing else, the travel-ban snafu should guarantee a more orderly process in future implementation, starting with more input from Kelly and his agency. Reince Priebus will see to it.
Moments ago, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly took responsibility for the rollout of the executive order on immigration. pic.twitter.com/bZxDw33bCX
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 7, 2017
The backbone on this guy.
DONT APOLOGIZE TO LIBTARDS EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You didnt do anything wrong, you spineless jellyfish. Now you’ve just given them more ammo to use against you.
YOU DID NOT NEED TO “CONSULT CONGRESS”
IT wouldn’t have mattered if he had waited. They would still complain just as loudly.
On 09/11/01 ALL AIR TRAFFIC across the entire US, including all INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS, was COMPLETELY HALTED.
Did this inconvenience some people ? Yes. Did they start a revolt against the government because of it ? No.
Is Kelly nuts ? If he delayed this and went to congress first it would have gotten to the press and the RATS(along with McLame & Graham) would be hammerin Pres. Trump before he even executed the EO.
Kelly is not a leader, he is a procedural politician. CYA is the priority.
Kelly is doing the right thing. The article is using Establishment media sources to construct what they want us to believe happened.
It might have happened that way. I do not know. But to claim that:
“That same story claimed that DHS had initially interpreted the order so that it didn’t apply to green-card holders — only to be overruled by Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, who wanted green-card holders admitted into the U.S. on a case-by-case basis.”
Does not pass the smell test. Both Bannon and Miller are very smart guys. I can believe the order was rushed; that it should have been reviewed better. But to claim that both Bannon and Miller refused to follow the advice of DHS on Green Card holders... It simply appears a way to try to make them look like idiots or bigots, or both. It is just too, too convenient.
That looks like fake news to me.
Don’t listen to Kelly who was there, and is saying it was his problem. Listen to anonymous sources with vested interests in making Bannon and Miller look bad...
Right.
In hindsight (as another FReeper suggested) he should have shut down immigration from ALL countries until extreme vetting processes are ready.
It would not have mattered. Some libtard judge would still have issued an unconstitutional hold on the ban.
hey thanks. I’ve been looking for the missing verse version.
Agree. Kelly was “falling on his sword” in order to provide those “up the chain” with cover if they needed it.
Trump appeared to be backing him up in his statements this morning by maintaining that Kelly did exactly what he was told to do and that there were a myriad of national security reasons why the action was not delayed or briefed to Congress in advance.
No...he is NOT. He is being a spineless fool. But of course the RINO assclown Allahpundit would like this.
Halt it because a Liberal Judge sticks his weenie in the punch bowl, or halt it so that you can dicker with John McCain.
Either way, if one of these guys blows himself up, I’m just as dead.
What a p*ssy.
Geez, a show of weakness. The sharks will smell the blood and go for the kill.
Stand by you guns. You are a Marine General. There is no retreat, ever.
Holy crap, is he pussying out? I thought generals had brass balls. Oh, boy.
Looks to me like Kelly needs to be fired.
We have 8 + years to catch up on... It should be ‘pedal-to- the-metal’ from here on out....
It has taken too much time and effort just to GET here, so now is NOT the time to diddle-daddle or back off what was promised and assured in the campaign struggle.
If we start that kind of fooling around NOW …it’s the same as giving in and allowing the Liberals to subvert the election result. We will be right back where we started from!!!
BTW-could you see the Liberals soft pedaling THEIR agenda, in the same situation? HELL no!
I will say though, maybe that is not really a fair question. Liberals DID exactly what they talked about in THEIR campaigning... and even more. BUT, they did most of it on the QT and Americans only heard about it AFTER it was too late to challenge, debate or object what was happening.
It’s absurd and unfair to make Conservatives use a ‘wait and go-slow’ system for our agenda, when Liberals did not and certainly WOULD not, in the same situation!!
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