WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN) – The House-approved resolution to disapprove President Trump’s national emergency declaration to pay for a border wall is now in the Senate.
A vote is set for Thursday and several Republican senators who are unhappy with Trump’s declaration are expected to agree with House Dems and pass the disapproval.
Ahead of the vote, the White House is putting pressure on those Republican lawmakers.
President Trump called in the reinforcements at the White House Wednesday as he tries to stave off possible embarrassment in the Senate tomorrow.
“This is really a bill on border safety, border security,” the president explained.
Trump acknowledges that he may be forced to veto a bill rejecting his national emergency declaration that up to 15 Republican senators could vote for. “We have a vote tomorrow a national emergency and we’ll see whether or Not I have to do the veto. I said, ‘Use your own discretion.’ But I think it’s a bad vote if they go against– I think anybody going against border security, drug trafficking, human trafficking, that’s a bad vote.”
The president is also accusing those senators who might vote with Democrats of over-thinking the vote. “It is, very simply, border security. No crime should not be thought of any other way,” Trump tweeted.
But one, Republican Senator Mike Lee, said Trump is acting like a king and is proposing legislation to restrict future national emergency declarations. That proposal is drawing support from his colleagues like Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) who said, “We have an institutional problem in Congress. And Congress has delegated that authority away to the president. We need to claw that back.”
But Trump rejected it out of hand when he called into a Senate Republican lunch Wednesday. “This is really a vote, not unconstitutional, because it’s constitutional,” President Trump said. “It’s not a vote on precedent, because you take a look at what President Obama did with DACA and with so many other things. There were no precedents.”
The president also issued a veiled threat to anyone who votes against him, saying, “I think it’s bad for a Republican senator. I also think it’s bad for a Democrat senator to vote against border security and to vote against the wall.”
Some Republican senators were working on a resolution to give President Trump the money he wants for the wall without a national emergency declaration. Their resolution would find the money for the wall using transfers in the appropriations process. But their proposal has failed to gather any steam.
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