Adam Schiff: Trump Has No Authority To Declare National Emergency To Build Border Wall

Schiff

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told Jake Tapper on Sunday that President Donald Trump cannot declare a national emergency to build his wall along the southern border.

The government shutdown has entered its third week and is wasting billions of dollars daily while thousands of federal workers are going without paychecks, all because Trump is demanding taxpayers fund his vanity project on the border that won’t do a thing to stop illegal immigration or drugs.

And as Fox News anchor Chris Wallace pointed out to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier on Sunday, it won’t stop terrorists either.

Trump is so desperate that he even threatened to declare a national emergency to get the wall built, a move that would be immediately challenged in court.

During an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN Sunday, Rep. Adam Schiff explained why Trump has no such authority in this case.

“I make of that really threatening talk from the president that he doesn’t have the power to execute,” he began. “Look, if Harry Truman couldn’t nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this president doesn’t have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border. So, that’s a nonstarter.”

Indeed, Truman tried to declare a national emergency in 1952 to keep steel production moving during the Korean War in the name of national security, but the Supreme Court overruled him in a 6-3 decision that remains precedent today.

Trump would likely see the same result.

“I think that what the president needs to do more than anything else — he’s painted himself into a corner on this thing — is figure out how he unpaints himself from that corner,” Schiff continued. “We need to reopen the government. We need to put people back to work.”

Schiff then referenced Senator Doug Jones (D-Ala.), who appeared earlier on the program.

“And I think Senator Jones was making a very important point, which is really something that I’m very focused on as well,” Schiff said. “And that is, we can’t allow this continual process that was really modernized by the Tea Party that, if I don’t get what I want, if I don’t get what I don’t have the votes for, if I don’t get what the country doesn’t want, I’m just going to shut down the government.”

Jones told Tapper that many people in his state are federal contractors and that they depend on the government to remain open.

“We have a lot of government workers in this state,” he said. “We also have a lot of contractors who depend on that government work. A lot of people want border security, for sure. But they also want the government services and they want the government to operate.”

Jones said that government workers should not be held hostage for a wall and warned that giving in to Trump would result in more government shutdowns later when he wants his way on something.

“I do not believe that the — holding government workers and all those affected by government services hostage is the way to determine how best to secure our borders, which everyone wants,” Jones said. “We do not believe that the government should be shut down and the people of this country held hostage just for a political purpose that the president has right now. It is too important that government function and function efficiently.”

Schiff agreed.

“If you reward the president with that kind of tactic, Jake, then we’re going to see every year the president shutting down the government,” he concluded. “And we just can’t afford to do business that way.”

Here’s the video via YouTube.

If Democrats give Trump $5 billion for his wall, nothing stops him from shutting it down again when he wants more funding since it will take far more money to build the wall he wants. He could also shut it down every time he wants his way on other issues and that’s a dangerous precedent to continue allowing to happen. Basically, it’s the true national emergency. Republicans have time and time again held America hostage in order to get their own way and it’s disastrous for them and the country every time. Americans already blame Trump for the shutdown. If Republicans don’t stand up to him now, they will also be blamed for every shutdown that he initiates in the future when he doesn’t get his way.

Featured Image: YouTube screenshot