President Trump on Thursday is expected to end his push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census and instead order the Commerce Department to survey Americans about their citizenship status another way, ABC News reported Thursday afternoon, citing multiple sources familiar with the move.
The ABC News report did not include details on whether Trump would order a new survey or ask the government to use existing surveys to collect citizenship data.
NBC News confirmed that Trump will order the government to collect citizenship data in a way other than the census, citing two administration officials.
Trump is set to make an announcement at the White House on the citizenship question at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, along with Attorney General Bill Barr.
Since the Supreme Court blocked the Commerce Department’s initial attempt to add the question, the Trump administration has been scrambling for a way to re-add the citizenship question to the census. The legal team defending the question had been looking for new legal arguments to do so, but now it appears the President has changed his approach.
Called it!
Still won’t help Barr. He’s gonna be held in contempt.
And what purpose does “citizenship data” serve?
I pray they don’t let off the gas on that. Barr and Ross need to be smacked and smacked and smacked.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
A vitriolic hue and cry from Trump’s posse (Hannity, Ingraham, Coulter, Limbaugh, et al) might goad him into double-doubling down and backtracking on even this. The fricking knucklehead is liable to come out and demand a new printing of the questionnaire a week before the mailing.