Should-Read: Benjamin Wittes: Malevolence Tempered by Incompetence: Trump’s Horrifying Executive Order on Refugees and Visas

Should-Read: I believe that Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan need to start the process of invoking the 25th Amendment in order to properly assess the situation:

Benjamin Wittes: Malevolence Tempered by Incompetence: Trump’s Horrifying Executive Order on Refugees and Visas: The malevolence of President Trump’s Executive Order on visas and refugees is mitigated chiefly…

…and perhaps only—by the astonishing incompetence of its drafting and construction. NBC is reporting that the document was not reviewed by DHS, the Justice Department, the State Department, or the Department of Defense, and that National Security Council lawyers were prevented from evaluating it. Moreover, the New York Times writes that Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, the agencies tasked with carrying out the policy, were only given a briefing call while Trump was actually signing the order itself. Yesterday, the Department of Justice gave a “no comment” when asked whether the Office of Legal Counsel had reviewed Trump’s executive orders—including the order at hand. (OLC normally reviews every executive order.) This order reads to me, frankly, as though it was not reviewed by competent counsel at all…