CNN's Kate Bolduan challenged a conservative commentator who downplayed president Donald Trump's comments about a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
The president said in an interview that he had the ability to help return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an overseas prison but isn't willing to do so, which contradicts his the Justice Department's position that it was up to the Salvadoran government to release him, but CNN commentator Shermichael Singleton insisted Trump's statements were consistent with his administration.
"Look, the the legal posturing of the administration has really been around this, I guess, convoluted term from the Supreme Court about 'facilitate' and what does that mean," Singleton said. "They're still challenging, that it's still working its way through the court system. I think this is obviously going to go back to SCOTUS, they'll make the final determination if they believe the executive branch does have unilateral authority here to just remove someone."
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"In this particular case, I think in many ways there's a strong argument for the executive branch to make, and I'm not saying this just because it's president Trump," Singleton added. "I would also have this same posture if it was a Democrat, generally speaking."
Bolduan was dubious, saying the president had undercut his own administration's arguments in the case.
"I'm just saying, no matter what the policy is, say what you mean and mean what you say when you're the attorney general of the United States and say, we can't do this," Bolduan said, "and Donald Trump says, 'Of course I can.' Like, this is a problem."
Singleton argued that the president was making a political statement, not a legal argument.
"I'm looking at it through two different frames, though, Kate," he said. "I'm seeing the political argument here again. It's still the strongest issue for the president, but I'm also looking at it through the legal lens, and again, legally, I think the attorneys representing the executive branch are going to want to stick firm with their overall argument about the powers of the executive as it pertains to immigration, because it is an argument about national sovereignty and national security, and I think those two things have to be assessed, and they're disparate categories."
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