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Erica Werner
A Congress Journalist Interest in Economic Policy
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned the President Trump privately on the consequences of the declaration of a national emergency for the construction of its border. Wall, explaining that this decision could trigger a political shift and split the GOP, according to two Republicans experiencing the exchange.
McConnell (R-Ky.) Told Trump that Congress could pass a resolution disapproving of the emergency declaration, people said – which would force the president to consider giving his first veto, facing the opposition of his own party.
McConnell got the message across in a face-to-face meeting with the President on Tuesday at the White House. , according to Republicans, who requested anonymity to describe the meeting. The two men met alone and conversed in the absence of assistants. Their meeting has not been announced publicly.
The majority leader 's comments to the president came amid growing concern over the Trump' s fallout from the GOP if Trump declared a national emergency to bypass the Congress and use the same. army to build new walls. along the US-Mexico border. Trump seems more and more willing to follow this path, declaring Friday that he "should have a good chance to do it".
Trump spoke of the possibility of making a definitive statement on the subject during his speech on the state of the Union. , telling reporters to watch Tuesday's speech closely. "I think you will find that very exciting," said the president.
And Trump again ruled out the odds that he would get the $ 5.7 billion financing that he wants from a bipartisan committee wall tasked with producing a border security solution. could prevent another government shutdown. The committee is working to reach an agreement that could be reached by February 15, when a transitional spending bill expires if Congress and Trump do not take action.
If the palliative measure expires without agreement, large portions of the federal government reopened on January 25 after a record interruption in funding.
"We are going to consider a national emergency because I do not think anything is going to happen," Trump told the White House press. "I do not think Democrats want border security."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting between McConnell and Trump. A spokesman for McConnell refused to discuss the senator's private conversations.
On the same day, he met the president and publicly announced his opposition to a national emergency declaration by encouraging the 17-member congressional committee to find another way out of the stalemate. "I am for everything that works, which means to avoid a closure and to prevent the president from thinking that he should declare a national emergency," McConnell said at his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill.
Senior McConnell MP, Senator John Thune (RS) .D.), Told Republican Senators at a private luncheon the same day that they had problems with the statement of National emergency by the president, they should raise them to the White House, according to one of the Republicans and another person well acquainted Thune. comments, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe them.
The prospect that Trump is using a national emergency declaration to build his wall has divided Republicans, a number of them worrying about the precedent that such an approach would create.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), A confident confidant of McConnell, said this week that he was opposed to a national emergency declaration, partly because of what it might encourage a future democratic president to do.
tried to communicate it to him, "said Cornyn, referring to Trump," and so he understands our concerns as we have expressed them, but I do not know if he shares the same concerns. "[19659017] Other Republican senators have adopted a different point of view.
"President Trump has proposed logical solutions," said Sen. Rick Scott (Republican). "If the Democrats do not want to negotiate with him because their judgment is clouded by their pure hatred, then the president has to go ahead."
Legislators on both sides expect a declaration of national emergency to be immediately challenged in court. and would eventually languish in court proceedings without producing a swift action on the wall of the border that Trump had long promised to pay Mexico.
And a growing concern for Republicans – what McConnell has expressed to Trump at the White House – is that they would be forced to vote on a disapproval resolution to cancel the declaration and to adopt it. .
This would be done under the provisions of the National Emergencies Act, which provides that a presidential statement may be annulled if legislators adopt a joint resolution. do this. Democratic members of the House would be able to quickly approve such a resolution, and the law provides for it to go to the Senate, where a majority vote would be required to pass.
At least half a dozen Republican senators are in power. fiercely opposed to the idea of an emergency declaration, generating enough opposition that a resolution of disapproval could be passed by the Senate with the support of the 47 Democrats and the United States. A handful of GOP senators – scenario on which McConnell had warned Trump. The Republicans hope that Trump will veto the resolution and that the House and Senate will not be able to muster the qualified majority vote needed to override his veto.
A resolution of disapproval concerning a presidential emergency declaration is rare. to play is uncertain. But this could reveal new divisions within the GOP over the issue of Trump's signing of the border wall, creating a portrait of the disunity that most Republicans would want to avoid.
An emergency statement could also cause further political damage to Trump, whose disapproval has increased. Significantly on the 35 days of partial closure of the government while more Americans were blaming the president that the Democrats stand apart.
While Trump stood on unstable political ground demanding a wall that most Americans continue to oppose, an even larger majority is opposed to his declared national declaration.
A poll conducted by Washington Post-ABC News during the shutdown revealed that 66% of Americans were opposed to Trump using emergency powers to build the wall without the "no-brainer". Congressional approval, 12 points more than the opposition to the wall in general. Seven out of ten independent MPs and about nine out of ten Democrats oppose Trump's claiming the urgent need to build a wall.
Trump is located between the political center and his own base, which subscribed to his request for a border wall. While Republican support for the use of emergency powers to build a wall was 20 points lower than that of the wall, 67% of Republicans were in favor of the emergency action of Trump, including a majority who supported him "firmly".
Facing a deadline for a compromise Republicans in the House of the Conference Committee are planning to travel to the border on Sunday and Monday
The Oval Office discussion on a national emergency declaration has illustrated the dynamics that developed between Trump and McConnell. The two interlocutors speak frequently, according to people close to their conversation, McConnell often providing Trump with raw details about the significance of a decision or course of action given to Capitol Hill.
But even though they kept in touch privately, in public their strategies diverged. Although McConnell warned of the dangers of a new closure or a national emergency declaration, Trump considered both possibilities.
"I think some of their goals are aligned, but the methods to get there could be different," said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.). When asked how they differed, Shelby replied, "You have to ask them, but I think it's pretty obvious."
Josh Dawsey, Damian Paletta, Scott Clement, and John Wagner contributed to this report.
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