A National Emergency declaration to secure the southern U.S. border is still on the table should Democrats continue to refuse to negotiate, President Trump said Wednesday.
“I think we may find a deal, and if we don’t, I may go that route,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office during a bill signing to combat human trafficking.
“I have the absolute right to do a National Emergency if I want.”
President Trump: "I have the absolute right to do national emergency if I want…my threshold will be if I can't make a deal with people that are unreasonable." pic.twitter.com/Xz7Mbws3c9
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 9, 2019
A reporter then asked the president what his “threshold” would be to invoke a National Emergency.
“My threshold will be if I can’t make a deal with people that are unreasonable,” Trump replied, referring to the Democrats.
“Right now, if I did something that was foolish, like gave up on border security, the first ones that would hit me are my senators, they’d be angry at me. The second ones would be the House. And the third ones would frankly be my base and a lot of Republicans out there and a lot of Democrats that want to see border security,” he added.
Trump was widely expected to declare a National Emergency during his Oval Office address, but he instead appealed to Congress to work out a deal before he exercised such executive powers.
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