At the White House on Tuesday, numerous questions were flung at Press Secretary Sarah Sanders about the controversial revival in the 2020 Census asking respondents to give their citizenship status.
Newsmax pointed out to Sanders that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross worked on the 1960 Census while at Harvard Business School and that the question was posed that year.
The question was removed from the Census form in 2000. Was the idea of its revival for 2020, we asked, the work of Ross or of someone in the White House.
“This is something the Department of Commerce oversees,” the President’s top spokeswoman told us, “But it also takes into account suggestions and recommendations from the Department of Justice and others. The Department of Justice certainly played a role in this process.”
Pressed if the White House had any role in bringing back the Census question, Sanders told us: “The White House supports it, but the decision was made at the department level.”
The citizenship question was posed for most of the 20th Century, but, according to Gillian Tett of the Financial Times, “in 2000, the question was removed, only appearing in the so-called American Community Survey, a far smaller sampling exercise.”
Tett also made clear she believes the White House is behind the reintroduction of the citizenship question. The Justice Department, she wrote, “apparently under White House prodding, recently wrote to Mr. Ross, demanding that the citizenship question be introduced.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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