Update: The Washington Post issued an update to its story on Saturday evening after the White House contested a number of factual assertions in the story.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that Steve Bannon did not make a visit to the Department of Homeland Security in Jan. 28 and that Bannon did not participate in a 2 a.m. phone call on Jan. 29. Spicer also denied that President Donald Trump called for a pause in new executive orders after the rollout of the order barring travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Spicer told the Post that Chief of Staff Reince Priebus put in place new procedures for orders.
“I think we got things wrong in this column,” Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt told the Huffington Post. “That’s why we published an editor’s note and a correction. I regret getting things wrong. We try really hard not to, but we do make mistakes. And when we make mistakes, we try to correct them and be transparent to the readers what we got wrong.”
When Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly set out to exempt green card holders from President Donald Trump’s order barring visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries, White House adviser Steve Bannon ordered Kelly not to, according to a Saturday report in the Washington Post.
Bannon made a personal visit to the Department of Homeland Security on Jan. 28 to give Kelly the order, but Kelly refused to follow Bannon’s instructions, per the Washington Post.
Following publication of the Post’s story, the White House denied to the Post that Bannon visited the Department of Homeland Security on Jan 28.
Trump’s executive order suspending the United States’ refugee program and temporarily barring visitors from a list of predominantly Muslim countries was met with chaos and protests in U.S. airports. It was at first unclear whether the order included those with green cards, prompting the DHS to clarify. DHS initially said that green cards holders were included in the ban and that they would be allowed into the U.S. on a case-by-case basis. A few days later, the department said that green card holders were exempt from the ban.
A federal judge on Friday night blocked the order nationwide, prompting DHS to stop enforcing the order and the State Department to reverse the cancellation of visas.
