U.S. President Donald Trump is criticizing his own Justice Department, asking for an “expedited hearing” of his controversial “watered-down travel ban” before the Supreme Court.
Early Monday, Trump fired off a series of tweets lashing out at the handling of his previous executive orders to temporarily bar would-be visitors from six Muslim-majority countries. In March, Trump signed a second, “watered-down” version of his original executive order after a federal judge in Washington state blocked the order.
“People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN!” Trump tweeted. “The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.”
“The Justice Dept. should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court – & seek much tougher version!” the president tweeted.
Trump’s comments comes just days after a terrorist attack in London killed seven people, including a Canadian, and injured 50 more.
READ MORE: Donald Trump pushes for his travel ban on Twitter as scene unfolds in London
Trump used his initial response to the attack late Saturday to promote his travel ban – which U.S. courts have blocked. And on Sunday he tweeted: “We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse.”
The president later commented Sunday night, saying he will do whatever he has to do to protect the U.S. from a “vile enemy” vowing “this bloodshed must end, this bloodshed will end.”
Last week, the Justice Department formally asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that blocked a ban on visitors from six mostly Muslim countries and refugees from around the world. The high court also is being asked to uphold the constitutionality of the Trump travel policy, which lower courts have blocked because it shows anti-Muslim prejudice.
Early in his presidency, the White House refused to call Trump’s original executive order a “travel ban.”
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“This is not a Muslim ban, it’s not a travel ban, it’s a vetting system to keep America safe,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters.
“It can’t be a ban if you’re letting a million people in. If 325,000 people from another country can come in, that is by nature not a ban,” Spicer said.
On Monday, Trump called the courts “slow and political.”
“In any event we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political!
On Monday evening Trump continued to push his travel ban on social media, suggesting that using politically correct terminology would not help “protect our people.”
–with a file from the Associated Press
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