Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright rebuked President Donald Trump's immigration ban Tuesday on CNN's "New Day," saying she believed there were "tears in the eyes" of the Statue of Liberty.
"We are a country that has been created and populated by people from other countries, and so the Statue of Liberty's message is, in fact, one of open arms and welcoming people, and I do think that there are tears in the eyes of the statue at the moment," Albright, who served as secretary of state with Bill Clinton's administration, said.
"It's flat anti-American," she said about the executive order, which bans immigrants from seven mostly-Muslim countries and bars refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days. "This country is based on diversity and respecting diverse opinions," she added.
Albright told "New Day" host Chris Cuomo that the wording of the ban has led to confusion. "It is not based on facts . . . it's made up of various statements that don't make any sense," Albright said.
The chaotic reaction to the ban was because it was not organized well.
"This was the most unprepared plan I have ever seen, in terms of the lack of coordination," Albright said.
Many questions about the ban remain, Albright said in an opinion piece in Tuesday's Boston Globe. "There does not seem to have been a decision-making process at all," she wrote.
During her "New Day" appearance, the former secretary rejected the claim that the ban was for security and not a Muslim ban.
"Blaming a whole religion for this is truly outrageous and un-American," she said.
"The order effectively creates a religious preference in our immigration system and is deeply biased against Muslims — undermining the principles of religious freedom upon which our country was founded," Albright wrote in her Globe piece.