There are new signs Republicans are going wobbly on the Muslim ban

The furor over President Trump’s new immigration ban continues to grow, as Trump has now fired the acting attorney general for saying she questioned its legality and would not defend it in court. Faced with an international outpouring of opposition — including rising consternation among congressional Republicans — the measure’s chief architect, Steve Bannon, has responded with a crescendo of bluster and defiance, blaming the controversy on out-of-touch media elites, which probably endears Bannon to Trump, who shows no public signs of budging.

Yet new reporting indicates that other members of Trump’s team may be going wobbly about the ban, and that Republicans are coming to view the current situation as untenable. Axios reports this morning:

Republican sources tell us that the Department of Homeland Security may issue “implementation guidance” that would allow for softening, and even policy changes, to President Trump’s travel restrictions on migrants. The White House insists that any further guidance wouldn’t constitute a walk-back.

But the internal conversation, led by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, reflects the widespread view among top Republicans that the current chaotic situation — beset with blame-casting, backstabbing and unintended consequences — is untenable.

The important larger context here is that Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, has already made his dissatisfaction known about this executive order — leading to internal conflict with Bannon over it. Kelly was reportedly not briefed on the executive order until Trump was basically in the process of signing it. And DHS privately concluded that the ban did not legally apply to green card holders but was overruled by Bannon, who insisted that it did, because, well, because he said so. The White House subsequently reversed course on this point.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/01/31/there-are-new-signs-republicans-are-going-wobbly-on-the-muslim-ban/?tid=pm_opinions_pop&utm_term=.4cc37fc2cecc