The Nation: Trump Absolutely Failed to Make a Case That His Border ‘Crisis’ Is a National Emergency

The only thing that Donald Trump’s first speech to the nation from the Oval Office provedis that Trump is no good at making speeches to the nation from the Oval Office. The president failed on Tuesday evening to deliver an even minimally credible case to support his claim that there is “a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border.” Nothing that he said in a rambling eight-minute recitation of talking points and applause lines from campaign rallies could justify his use of emergency powers to build an unnecessary and unworkable border wall.

These are the vital takeaways from Trump’s speech, as the president and his aides have in recent days been suggesting that he might declare a national emergency as part of a scheme to “secure the border.” …

“If the president follows through on the threat to declare a state of emergency simply to circumvent the legislative branch and build a wall on the Mexican border,” says Common Cause president Karen Hobert Flynn, “then Congress must act swiftly and decisively to check the abuse utilizing the National Emergencies Act, which was enacted in 1976 as a post-Watergate reform to reassert Congress’s constitutional role in checking and safeguarding against authoritarian abuses of power.” …

What is at stake is not merely the wall, nor even the shutdown fight. This is about a much more important principle. The Constitution of the United States, to which members of Congress swore their allegiance last week, establishes separated powers. But those powers only have meaning if Congress checks and balances the executive when the executive acts as an imperial president.

“The Republican majorities in the last Congress refused to act to curb a variety of abuses by President Trump and that has only served to further embolden him,” says Common Cause’s Flynn. “If President Trump declares a national-emergency in order to build a wall, the new Congress must act immediately, using the checks and balances written into our Constitution to prevent the president’s abuse of power.”