Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) lamented the “mischaracterization” of the travel ban as a “Muslim ban,” telling reporters on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling to uphold a version of the ban that President Donald Trump is just “trying to keep the country safe.”
“This is part of the ‘Never Trump Resistance’ to mischaracterize this as being a Muslim ban,” he said Tuesday in response to questions about SCOTUS’ 5-4 ruling to uphold it. “This is not a Muslim ban, not anything that President Obama didn’t do when he was president, so I’m not surprised the Supreme Court ruled the way they did.”
John Cornyn: It's "part of the never Trump resistance to mischaracterize" travel ban as a "Muslim ban. … pic.twitter.com/FJRnd8VaME
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 26, 2018
The ban will uphold Trump’s latest iteration of the ban, which focuses on immigrants and refugees from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea, Venezuela and Chad.
Conservatives have regularly pointed to claims that former President Barack Obama “identified” the seven countries included in Trump’s travel ban, which has been repeatedly debunked. The Obama administration did enact visa restrictions on Iraq for six months in 2011 and Congress passed laws during his administration to complicate visa applications for people from several of those countries in order to tighten travel security screenings.
Per the Washington Post’s fact check on Republicans’ claims:
“So while the Obama administration expanded the list of countries, it sought to keep the focus on travel, not nationality. Trump, by contrast, has taken the opposite approach — keeping the focus on a person’s nationality.”
