Spicer takes issue with 'ban' label used by Trump

White House press secretary Sean Spicer insisted on Tuesday at his daily briefing that the executive order signed by the president last week does not constitute a “travel ban.” Just over an hour earlier, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said the same.

Those statements put both men at odds with their boss, President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly referred to the order he signed Friday as a “ban.” Spicer attempted to explain away that discrepancy Tuesday, telling reporters in the briefing room that the president was merely “using the words the media is using.”


During a brief exchange with reporters in the Oval Office last Saturday, Trump said his controversial order implemented a day earlier would put in place a “very, very strict ban.” The president followed that remark with a post to his Twitter account on Monday, defending the abrupt implementation of his order by writing that “if the ban were announced with a one week notice, the ‘bad’ would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad ‘dudes’ out there!”

Nonetheless, Spicer maintained during his Tuesday briefing that Trump’s executive order is not a travel ban, arguing that hundreds of thousands of travelers have entered the U.S. since its implementation last Friday. He cited Kelly, the newly-sworn in secretary of homeland security, who was similarly insistent at his own press conference on Tuesday that the policy represented only a “temporary pause” in allowing individuals from seven majority-Muslim nations to enter the U.S.

“Well, first of all, it's not a travel ban. I think you heard secretary Kelly. I apologize. I just want to make sure I get this straight,” Spicer said, cutting off a reporter who used the phrase “travel ban” in her question. “A ban would mean people can't get in. We've clearly seen hundreds of thousands of people come into our country from other countries. Sorry.”

While Spicer was adamant on Tuesday that the executive order not be represented as a ban, that is how he personally represented the policy as recently as last Sunday. Speaking to ABC’s “This Week,” Spicer described the executive order as “a 90-day ban to ensure that we have further vetting restrictions so that we know who is coming to this country.”