The 21 Series: Let Me Count The Ways It Is Folly To Follow Trump On The National Emergency

(3/10/2019 emailed 21 Republican Senators up for re-election in 2020)

Let me count the ways it is folly to follow Trump on the false national emergency.

At least six separate lawsuits have been filed challenging Trump’s National emergency:

• El Paso County, Texas filed a lawsuit in the Western District of Texas in concert with the Border Network for Human Rights, Protect Democracy, and the Niskanen Center;
• Public Citizen sued on behalf of the Frontera Audubon Society and three Texan landowners;
• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice;
• Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit;
• 16 U.S. states jointly filed a lawsuit in Federal court in San Francisco challenging the declaration;
• The ACLU filed suit in the Northern District of California on behalf of the Sierra Club and other interested organizations and people;
• The Tohono O’odham Nation has raised the issue with the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the Cocopah, Kickapoo, and Kumeyaay are also considering their legal options.

Congress will overturn Trump’s declaration legislatively:

• The House passed a privileged resolution to overturn the emergency 245–182 with 13 Republicans voting in favor.
• The Senate is poised to pass the same resolution with 4 Republicans voting with Democrats.
• Rand Paul asserted at least 10 other Republican senators would also vote for the resolution.

Reactions around the country:

• A number of legal scholars called the declaration an “abuse” and a “misapplication” of the National Emergencies Act, with many stating that the declaration threatened the separation of powers in the United States and amounted to a potential constitutional crisis.
• Thousands reportedly participated in a nationwide Presidents Day protest on February 18, 2019, to denounce the emergency declaration.
• On February 25, a bipartisan group of 58 former senior national security officials and 25 former Republican lawmakers implored Congress to overturn Trump’s emergency declaration.

Commentators:

• Many prominent Republican and conservative commentators expressed concerns that the declaration violated the separation of powers and the powers of Congress. Conservative Max Boot argued in the Washington Post that the action was Trump’s “latest assault on the norms of American democracy” and that “arguably nothing Trump has done to date has been as alarming as his misuse of the 1976 National Emergencies Act.”
• Ann Coulter stated “the goal of a national emergency is for Trump to scam the stupidest people in his base for 2 more years” and that “[t]he only national emergency is that our president is an idiot.”

Democrats gearing up to fight the Pentagon and 2020 budget:

• What do you think the false national emergency will do to 2020 budget talks? Republicans are going to head into a second government shutdown in the 116th Congress. How did the first one work for you folks?
• House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) recently fired a warning shot, saying Democrats would try to strip the Defense Department of its ability to reprogram money if the Pentagon doesn’t get congressional buy-in. “We will zero out their reprogramming authority for fiscal year 2020,” Smith told Bloomberg News.
• Trump’s practiced liars are trying to manipulate you with a promise that Trump will request funds to make up any diverted money as part of its 2020 budget request.
• HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Use common sense and vote no to Trump’s false national emergency. There is absolutely no win for you to follow or support this folly. Did you count all the ways this will blow back on you?