White House: ‘No Daylight’ Between Sessions, DeVos On Transgender Order

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer speaks in the press briefing room of the White House during the daily briefing on February 14, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photo by Olivier Douliery/Abaca(Sipa via AP Images)
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White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Wednesday denied reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos clashed over an upcoming executive order expected to weaken protections for transgender students.

“There’s no daylight between anybody, between the President, between any of the secretaries,” Spicer told reporters at his daily press briefing.

He said there has been “some discussion” regarding “the timing of the issuance and recommendations, or between the exact wording,” but that the order’s ultimate conclusions were not at issue.

“I’ve made this clear and the President’s made it clear throughout the campaign that he’s a firm believer in state’s rights and that certain issues like this are not best dealt with at the federal level,” Spicer said. “I would expect further guidance to come out on that today.”

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that DeVos told Trump she was uncomfortable with the order, according to three Republicans with direct knowledge of their internal discussions.

Sessions pressed DeVos to sign off on the order since he could not move forward without her consent, according to the report. DeVos capitulated after Trump sided with his attorney general, but asked for the order to stipulate that schools must protect transgender students from bullying.

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  1. Avatar for drtv drtv says:

    But plenty of darkness, eh, Sean.

  2. Degrees of discrimination are a states’ rights issue? How about human slavery?

  3. Avatar for nova nova says:

    “There’s no daylight between anybody, between the President, between any of the secretaries,” Spicer told reporters at his daily press briefing.

    not surprising, really.

    i mean, trump DOES fancy himself the next abraham lincoln (perhaps even more tremendously tremendous). and we all know that trump is very well read, and a student of history. because that’s what lincoln basically did – doris kearns goodwin even wrote a book about it: Team of Clones.

  4. Trump: They both support transgender rights because both Devos and Sessions themselves are Transgender.

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