Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Sunday defended President Donald Trump's stalled travel ban on several Muslim-majority nations, insisting it's lawful – and vowing to battle its delay in the courts.
In an interview on ABC News' "This Week," Sessions said Trump has a responsibility to protect the nation.
"This order is lawful, its within his authority, constitutionally and explicit statutory authority," Sessions insisted of the order barring refugees and people from six countries from entering the United States.
"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 was pressed on his comments that he was "amazed" a judge "sitting on an island in the Pacific" could halt the ban – and seemed to suggest the dig was a joke.
"They filed a lawsuit in Hawaii and the first decision on the new executive order came out of Hawaii," Sessions said, and when asked: "Why not just call it the state of Hawaii?"
"Nobody has a sense of humor any more," Sessions responded.
Sessions came under fire for the initial comment, including from Hawaii's two U.S. senators.
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