WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump urged Republican party rebels on Wednesday not to support Democrats voting to scrap his invocation of emergency powers for funding US-Mexico border wall construction.
“STAY UNITED!” Trump tweeted ahead of a Senate vote in which four Republicans are expected to break ranks and join Democrats in blocking Trump’s controversial measure.
Democrats are in the Senate minority but their measure would pass with the four Republicans’ support.
According to Democratic lawmakers, Trump exceeded his authority when he invoked special powers to override congressional opposition to funding extra border wall construction.
Their rebuke of Trump, which has already passed in the lower house of Congress, would be an embarrassment for the president if it clears the Senate with his own party’s support.
However, the vote will only have symbolic importance since Trump can respond with a veto, then continue to obtain his wall funding.
In his tweet, Trump denied that the issue was about constitutional concerns of presidential overreach, as Democrats claim.
Senators are “voting on desperately needed Border Security & the Wall. Our Country is being invaded with Drugs, Human Traffickers, & Criminals of all shapes and sizes,” he wrote. “That’s what this vote is all about.”
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