Sarah Sanders denies report Trump urged official to close border, offered pardon

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Sunday dismissed a report that President Trump asked Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to close the border with Mexico and offered to pardon the official if necessary.

Sanders, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” said Trump “is a person and a president of law and order.”

{mosads}”That’s his entire focus since coming in is actually restoring law and order to this country. … The president has asked them to do everything they can and everything they’re allowed to do under the law to stop the massive crisis we have at our southern border. It’s the same thing he says publicly day in and day out,” she said.

Sanders made a similar remark Sunday during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

“The president is actually trying to enforce laws, not go around them,” she said. “We’re a country of laws and we have a president who supports that and is not asking anybody to do anything outside of those bounds.”

Sarah Sanders disputes reports that President Trump urged DHS to close the border and that homeland security officials were alarmed by his comments: “Homeland security pushed back on this, as has the president … no one’s trying to skirt the law” https://t.co/QNl4j84pXc pic.twitter.com/73D6EXi5oQ

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 14, 2019

The New York Times reported last week that Trump privately urged McAleenan to close the border and told him that he would issue a pardon if McAleenan ran into any legal troubles for doing so.