President Trump used his speech in Nashville on Wednesday to condemn a federal judge for practicing “unprecedented judicial overreach” in ruling to freeze his revised travel ban that affected six countries from the Middle East and North Africa.
Speaking of the threat to the U.S. posed by terrorists around the country, Trump said he issued his executive order to temporarily suspend immigration from places where there is a heightened security risk. Trump discussed the “bad news” which broke hours ago, pledging he “will turn it into good.”
Trump said he learned “moments ago” about the district judge in Hawaii clocking his executive order, just hours before the March 16 executive order was slated to be put into action.
He seemed to stop the thought, noting that he has “to be nice, otherwise I’ll get criticized,” in what was perhaps a reference to when Trump saw backlash for criticizing a Mexican judge in the Trump University case last year. “I’ll be criticized by them for speaking harshly about our courts. I would never want to do that,” he said.
The president then said the first executive order, which was blocked by a federal judge’s order that was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, “should have never been blocked to start with.”
The new order, he said, “was tailored to the dictates of the Ninth Circuit in my opinion, flawed, ruling. This is the opinion of many, and “unprecedented judicial overreach.”
Trump says his 2nd travel ban = a “watered-down version” of 1st ban—he wants to go back to 1st banLawsuits will likely cite this statement pic.twitter.com/2F15aTEXaD— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 16, 2017
Trump took aim at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, saying people “screaming, break up the Ninth Circuit. I will tell you why. That Ninth Circuit, you have to see, take a look at how many times they have been overturned with their terrible decisions.” Trump previously stated that the court was in a state of “chaos.”
There is legislation being looked at in Congress that would break up the Ninth Circuit. The Washington Examiner reported earlier this week that judges from that district met with Republican senators to urge opposition to a court-splitting bill proposed by Republican Arizona Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain, according to multiple GOP Senate aides.
This ruling “makes us look weak,” Trump told the crowd in Nashville, adding he will take the case to the Supreme Court if needed.
