Josh Hawley Explains Why He’ll Take To The Senate Floor To Defend Trump’s National Emergency

Nick Givas on March 12, 2019Republish
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Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said he will stand with President Donald Trump and vote “no” on the Senate’s resolution of disapproval of his national emergency.

“Look, first of all, we have a crisis at the border. And it’s clear to anybody who’s looked at the situation,” Hawley said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”

“Congress has heard testimony on this over and over,” he continued. “We have a smuggling crisis. We have a humanitarian crisis, we have a drug crisis. We have a law enforcement crisis, number one. Number two, Congress has given the president this authority. In 1976, Congress passed a law that gave the president the ability to declare a national emergency. So it’s a pretty simple question. Is this an emergency or not? Because Congress has said he can declare a national emergency. This clearly is an emergency. That’s why I’ll be voting no against the Democrats and yes with the president.”

Host Brian Kilmeade said the GOP might have trouble rounding up enough votes to support the president and asked why Republicans are so divided.

“You know, I can’t speak for other senators, but, you know, I know there are some who think that this is … I think some people don’t understand actually the situation,” Hawley replied.

“Some people think that the president is saying that he has some inherent authority to do this. They don’t realize that Congress has actually passed a law that has been invoked, I think it’s 56 or 58 times by other presidents. I mean, there’s lots of precedent here. It’s been invoked for stuff like overseas elections. I mean, our own national security on our own border is definitely a national emergency. If that isn’t, I don’t know what is.”

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