Another day and more fake news from the AP

Daily Beast:
The Department of Homeland Security is roundly condemning an Associated Press story that broke Friday morning about considering the use of the National Guard to “round up” undocumented immigrants. The DHS says that isn’t true, and—contra the AP’s reporting—that DHS Secretary John Kelly didn’t write the draft memo.

“The Department is not considering mobilizing the National Guard,” said Gillian Christensen, the acting press secretary for DHS.

A DHS official told The Daily Beast that the memo the AP cited was an early, pre-decisional draft, that Kelly never approved it, and that the department as a whole never seriously considered it.

The AP reported that the draft memo suggested using National Guard troops to “to perform the functions of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension and detention of aliens in the United States.”

The AP also reported that Kelly wrote the memo, but Christensen told The Daily Beast that that is “absolutely incorrect.”

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, denied the AP’s report on Twitter shortly after it published.

“Not true. 100% false,” he tweeted.

The draft memo, which the AP published in full after putting up its initial story, discusses the possibility of using the National Guard for immigration enforcement. It directs the heads of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “immediately engage” with the governors of the border states and states that touch those states about using their National Guard troops for immigration enforcement. That would mean Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, California, Oregon, and Nevada.

The memo, dated Jan. 25, 2017, says that Trump’s executive order on border security was issued on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day. But the president didn’t issue any immigration-related executive orders that day, indicating the DHS memo was written before his inauguration and during the transition process.
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There is no indication that the AP called Kelly's office to confirm the authenticity of the memo draft.  If that is the case it is another example of the "too good to check" reaction to stories that fit their narrative of an out of control transition.

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