Schiff: Trump's threat to declare national emergency a 'non-starter'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill



BY ALICIA COHN - 01/06/19 10:09 AM EST

Top House Democrat Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday said President Trump "doesn't have the power" to declare a national emergency over the border.

"So that's a non-starter," the incoming House Intelligence Committee chairman told CNN's "State of the Union.

Link to tweet

Trump since Friday has been threatening to declare a national emergency in order to build a wall along the southern U.S. border.

"I may decide a national emergency depending on what happens over the next few days," Trump told reporters on Sunday.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/424053-schiff-trumps-threat-to-declare-national-emergency-a-non-starter

[erlewyne]

1. Trump cannot shut down the government.

If he could he would have already done it. I am so tired of Trump's b.s. being
repeated.

[Cartoonist]

3. Define shut down then

Seems like he's done it.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Actually he hasn't done it because no legislation has actually made it to his desk to veto

Blame Turtle for the shutdown at this moment in time.

Turtle refuses to bring the newly passed House bills (under the new 116th congress) to the Senate floor, that have the IDENTICAL language of the original Senate bills that he had already allowed to be overwhelmingly passed JUST LAST MONTH (under the old 115th congress).

If both chambers were permitted to pass the legislation re-opening the government and Drumpf vetoes it, then that marks his final ownership of the shutdown (although congress can vote to override any time they want, but they would need 2/3rds to do it).

[erlewyne]

12. Thank you - Thank you very much! (Elvis line)

Trump has not shut the government down. In short order ??it
will hit the fan. Mitch is showing his true colors and he is
chicken to back Trump because he knows the G.O.P will
go down.

Thanks BumRushDaShow, I enjoyed your reply.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. Yeah Turtle has been backed into a corner big time

as long as he clings to Drumpf as his "excuse". He may be under a threat that if he doesn't act as the "firewall" to keep the government closed by not allowing a vote on what is the identical legislation that the Senate had already passed just last month under the "old" congress (which has now been passed by the House), then all of the kompromat that they have on him will be released by the PTB in Russia.

What a mess this country is in.

As a sidenote, I heard on the local news this morning that 270+ nominees waiting confirmation had their nominations expired at the end of December and will have to be re-nominated with the new congress.

[onetexan]

19. absolutely Turtle is to blame for not doing his duty to stand up to this mad man

[Jarqui]

28. If the media reports are accurate, Turtle got Russian money too

How Putin's oligarchs funneled millions into GOP campaigns
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns

In 2015-16, everything changed. Blavatnik's political contributions soared and made a hard right turn as he pumped $6.35 million into GOP political action committees, with millions of dollars going to top Republican leaders including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham.

In 2017, donations continued, with $41,000 going to both Republican and Democrat candidates, along with $1 million to McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund.

...

McConnell surely knew as a participant in high level intelligence briefings in 2016 that our electoral process was under attack by the Russians. Two weeks after the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement in October 2016 that the Russian government had directed the effort to interfere in our electoral process, McConnell's PAC accepted a $1 million donation from Blavatnik's AI-Altep Holdings. The PAC took another $1 million from Blavatnik's AI-Altep Holdings on March 30, 2017, just 10 days after former FBI Director James Comey publicly testified before the House Intelligence Committee about Russia's interference in the election.

Biden: McConnell stopped Obama from calling out Russians
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/23/mitch-mcconnell-russia-obama-joe-biden-359531

McConnell arguably is as much of a Russian asset as Trump and Lindsey Graham

[PSPS]

36. McClatchy uncovered russian money going to trump, mcconnell, ryan and other republicans

Including some governor races like Scott Walker

[BigmanPigman]

38. Do you have a copy of that?

I would like to have it to save in my bookmarks for later reference. Thanks.

[Pepsidog]

20. You are right. Need new Senate rules to overthrow rule by tyrants.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. The House has a bill discharge rule that with enough member signatures

would force legislation to the floor for consideration. The Senate doesn't have such a rule that is as general as the House rule (they can discharge but only for specific types of legislation related to the Congressional Review Act, which deals with review and consideration of sudden agency regulation proposals, and/or non-critical/non-controversial stuff that would normally pass by unanimous consent).

So the Senate really does need some mechanism to allow some x number of members to force legislation out of a committee and to the floor if a Committee Chair or Majority Leader is holding it hostage.

The media and bloviating pundits keep saying "both sides" and "congressional gridlock" but it is this type of thing (keeping bipartisan legislation from moving for a vote) that is what is causing that. Plus the media refuses to also note that the GOP has embraced what they call the "Hastert Rule" which means that they will only advance legislation that would pass with the "majority of the majority" party (meaning it would need to pass with a majority of GOP member votes or it will never see the light of day).

[Pepsidog]

34. Good comment. Hastert Rule just divides congress further. Seems like a good opening for reasonable

Republicans to come together and form a coalition more towards the middle. Reasonable Republicans, a oxymoron for sure. I have come to the realization that Republicans really do believe the propaganda Fox and others sell. I have said it many times, until we deal with the Fox problem, the country will remain deeply divided. The Hastert Rule named after a pedofile. Despicables

[BumRushDaShow]

35. What has happened of late

you might recall, is that in 2010, the GOP flipped 63 seats. So there are a significant number of teabagger/extremists in there, where their numbers were bolstered in every subsequent election until this past one. So the divide is "real" in terms of who they elected (because large sums of money were spent primarying the GOP moderates). Eventually some of the remaining moderates ended up having their seats taken over by moderate Democrats this past election.

So thanks to Citizen's United, the "divide" has been baked into Congress - at least during this current moment in time.

And the media needs to start laser-focusing on that Hastert Rule and how that is impacting "bipartisanship" and movement of legislation and also note that it was named after and had originally been used as a tool by someone who is now an ex-felon who just got out of prison in 2017.

[Pepsidog]

37. Very true. Citizen's United is a disgrace. I see Alito shaking his smug head at Obama during the

State of the Union address and it angers me.

[BootinUp]

2. It's nice to have sane intelligent people in there. Nt

[Scarsdale]

4. tRump seems to think he

was elected King. He thinks he is equal to Putin, who rules by fear. Not to worry. "Smart kid" Jared is on the case. He settled the ME peace talks, the opioid crisis, the rest of the difficult problems. So, we are in good hands (Yeah, right) Where is Lady Ivanka during all of this? Probably getting her face shot up with Botox before facing her prison sentence.

[at140]

8. To understand Trump, you have to look at his background...

He was born to a rich real-estate developer. Inherited millions,
never had to work for a job, never had a boss.

Trump was running a large real-estate building outfit before running for president.
He was always the top boss, and is used to being surrounded by compliant subordinates.
As POTUS, he will continue to act in his autocratic ways.

[mgardener]

22. Yes and remember....

He went bankrupt 4 times and involved in thousands of lawsuits for non payment of money he owed others.

He did not use American made steel in his building. He defrauded consumers.

Such a stable genius

[Doitnow]

31. And, at the same time, never did a single thing for anyone but himself. That's his RECORD.

[Cartoonist]

5. Schiff is about to find out

Trump can do whatever Mitch lets him. Who's going to stop him?

[pangaia]

23. You are right. Horribly right....

[Chemisse]

7. So from the wording it sounds like he CAN bypass Congress

And declare a national emergency, but that he could face a legal challenge if he does so (big whoop).

They REALLY need to stop Trump before he does something like this! He could declare martial law? Shut down the internet? Control the media? It sounds like a Trumpian wet dream!

[watoos]

9. I guess if that happens we are going to find out if there are

more of us than them. Whose side will the military be on?

Everyone on DU is a goner, we're going to be one of the first groups to get rounded up.

[elmac]

14. well, 2/3rds of the military voted for him and I would bet more would support him. nt

[FakeNoose]

26. Cheeto has done a lot to piss them off

Many military leaders are speaking up now, against the orange asshole. That's almost unheard of since the Civil War. Cheeto has disrespected decorated war heroes like John McCain and others big-time since he became *pResident. I think they'd turn against him if they had the chance.

[Doitnow]

32. Why else is he bringing so many troops home-----certainly not to same money.

[Perseus]

10. Lets see what Putin orders him to do

This would be the biggest test the military will have to face, are they the patriots they claim to be, or is their allegiance to a corrupt buffoon?

[gordianot]

11. I take seriously his motives to not just shut down but wreck government.

Call it what you like martial law the yearly threat is serious. When he threatens to suspend congress and remove the last vestiage of oversight due to a contrived emergency the path to Fascism will be completed. I doubt there are any measures he will not take to maintain his financial survival which has now morphed into political survival.

Once again he is doing this in plain sight for all to see.

[Grasswire2]

30. yes

And that has been the plan all along.

Shutter government. Break it all down. Weaken America and the Western Alliance.

What looks like impetuousness and incompetence is not. It's the plan.

[paleotn]

16. Not going to happen.

There would be rioting in the streets and impeachment exercised.

[pangaia]

24. It probably IS going to happen.

[ripcord]

21. It's scary that this might work

The border wall was approved by the secure fence act of 2006 but money has never been allocated for it, between this and the wide ranging powers the courts have given the president on securing the border if he finds the funds that may be all she wrote.

[PeeJ52]

13. Who was the idiot reporter who asked tRump if he considered declaring a national emergency anyway???

You could tell by the surprised look on his face that he hadn't even thought of it. We need to quit giving the buffoon ideas. He doesn't know what a President can do or not do. He's only a pResident.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. "We need to quit giving the buffoon ideas."

Who is "we"?

Certainly no one on the liberal/progressive/Democratic Party side would be giving the GOP any "ideas".

[paleotn]

15. I forgot about Truman and the steel strike.

Good point, Congressman.

[duforsure]

25. trumps reasoning can easily be debunked

Immigrants here illegally are mostly from being here legally with visa's and legally went through the border, like people he has working for him, then overstaying . And the few here illegally are much lower numbers and the crime rate for them is lower than for Americans. The border security threat is bogus from trump, and he knows it. He hires them. Legals on visa's, and illegals giving them fake green cards to use. The greatest threat to this country's National Security is trump, and his working for putin against us because he's compromised, and the gop who are compromised too.

[Grasswire2]

29. Here's what emergency powers are -- The Atlantic

[link:https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/|


"The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority."

[David__77]

33. "Emergency rule" is a good way to characterize it.

The Democrats have a weapon they can use against emergency rule- they can fail to approve a budget until such emergency powers are limited through law.