Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE on Sunday appeared to dismiss criticism over his comments referring to the state of Hawaii as "an island in the Pacific."

During an interview on ABC's "This Week," Sessions was asked about his comments that he was "amazed" that a judge "sitting on an island in the Pacific" could halt President Trump's travel order barring people from six predominately Muslim countries and refugees from entering the U.S.

"They filed a lawsuit in Hawaii and the first decision on the new executive order came out of Hawaii," Sessions told host George Stephanopoulos.

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Stephanopoulos interrupted Sessions, asking: "Why not just call it the state of Hawaii?"

"Nobody has a sense of humor any more," Sessions said in response.

He also said the president knows the threats to this country and has the responsibility to protect it.

"This order is lawful, its within his authority, constitutionally and explicit statutory authority," Sessions said.

"We're going to defend that order all the way up and so you do have a situation in which one judge out of 700 in America has stopped this order. I think it's a mistake, and we're gong to battle in the courts and I think we'll eventually win."

Sessions faced backlash from his comments from Hawaii senators and defended his comments in an interview last week.