Tom Cotton took to the floor of the Senate today to defend Trump’s national emergency declaration from the three phony arguments being leveled against it.
First, he presents the facts at the border demonstrating that there is absolutely a crisis that must be dealt with:
Here are the facts. Illegal-alien apprehensions in the last 6 months are up 90% over the previous year. Law enforcement is overwhelmed. The Border Patrol Commissioner says, “This is clearly both a border security and humanitarian crisis.” pic.twitter.com/qALGpt0w6G
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 14, 2019
He also hammers the Democrats for calling Trump’s declaration an lawless act:
Democrats say declaring a national emergency is "lawless." But for an act to be lawless, one actually has to act outside the law. On the contrary, the president is using clear statutory authority delegated to him by Congress. pic.twitter.com/o4HO3InV75
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 14, 2019
Here’s the full segment on that which is worth hearing, which stops at 7:15:
He doesn’t stop there.
He also responds, respectfully I might add, to the claims of his colleagues that Democrats will use the national emergency statute to push their own agenda. He admits that it isn’t hard to imagine such abuses, but says they would be exactly that, abuses, which is not what Trump is doing at all:
If you continue watching that video, Cotton also hammers Democrats who call this a ‘fake emergency’, explaining why it’s more of an emergency that other national emergencies they had no issue with.
All in all, it’s pretty clear that Cotton will be one of the many Republican Senators who support Trump’s declaration. Sadly, it likely won’t be enough to keep it off Trump’s desk. But it’s still good to hear such a strong defense of the declaration from Cotton.
As I was about to post this, he just tweeted the following:
The U.S. has 32 active national emergencies. They include:
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 14, 2019
—Election fraud in Belarus
—Threats to the rule of law in Lebanon
—A failed coup in Burundi
Yet Democrats claim the crisis on OUR border doesn’t count.
Great point!