Vice President Mike Pence said in an interview aired Sunday that a federal judge “certainly” has the right to halt President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, though the President blasted the judge for doing so.
“Is it right for the President to say ‘so-called judge’? Doesn’t that undermine the separation of powers in the Constitution, written right next door?” George Stephanopoulos asked Pence on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I don’t think it does. I think the American people are very accustomed to this President speaking his mind, and speaking very straight with them,” Pence said.
“This is a judge who was nominated by President Bush, 99 to nothing confirmed,” Stephanopoulos said. “How is he a ‘so-called judge’?”
“There’s simply no question under the Constitution and frankly under federal law that the President of the United States has the authority, in the interest of national security, to determine who has the right to come into this country,” Pence said.
“But doesn’t this judge have the authority to do what he did as well?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
“He certainly does, and that’s why the administration is complying with that order as we speak,” Pence replied.
He said that Trump’s administration plans to seek a stay of the judge’s order.
“We’ll go through the process in the courts to get a stay of that order, so that again, we can implement this action that is entirely focused on the safety and security of the American people,” Pence said.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge James Robart blocked Trump’s executive order nationwide, which prompted the President to lambast him on Twitter as a “so-called judge.”
Early Sunday, a federal appeals court denied the Justice Department’s request for an immediate stay of Robart’s order and the immediate reinstatement of Trump’s immigration order.
