The White House pushed back against an Associated Press report Friday that stated President Donald Trump was looking into mobilizing troops to round up undocumented immigrants, calling it “not true.”
The Associated Press reported that a memo it obtained showed that Trump was weighing utilizing up to 100,000 National Guard troops in the effort. After the story blew up online, White House spokesman Michael Short pushed back, tweeting: “Not true.”
Not true. https://t.co/T8rA87kJaU
— Michael C. Short (@MCShort45) February 17, 2017
White House press secretary Sean Spicer told an AP reporter traveling with the President and administration that the news organization should have asked for confirmation before they ran with the story, according to a White House pool report. But, when the Associated Press first posted the story, it said it had reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment and a status report on the proposal and their requests were not answered.
“I wish you guys asked before you tweeted,” Spicer tells AP reporter on plane. Reporter says they asked many times for comment.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) February 17, 2017
Spicer called the report “100 percent not sure” and “irresponsible,” according to the pool report. ”There is no effort at all to utilize the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants.”
