California’s attorney general said Sunday that the state would “definitely and imminently” sue President Donald Trump over his declaration of a national emergency to secure border wall funds.
“We are confident there are at least eight billion ways that we can prove harm,” the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, told ABC “This Week” host Martha Raddatz, apparently referring to Trump’s assertion from the White House Rose Garden on Friday that the emergency declaration would let him access roughly $8 billion in additional funds for a border wall.
NEW: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says the state will file a lawsuit “definitely and imminently” against the Trump administration over the president's recent national emergency declaration. https://t.co/lASC3jt1A4 pic.twitter.com/f8Q4TdYzOX
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 17, 2019
Becerra focused on Trump’s admission during his Rose Garden address Friday that “I didn’t need to do this,” but “I’d rather do it much faster.”
“He himself said it,” Becerra said. “He did not need to announce or declare a crisis. He did not have to call this an emergency. He has also said he knows he’s going to lose in court and he’s hoping that he can count on a conservative court in the Supreme Court to give him a victory because he knows he’s going to lose all the way up the ladder of the federal court system.”
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra: "It's become clear that this is not an emergency, not only because no one believes it is, but because Donald Trump himself has said it's not." https://t.co/LEm5HAP9a0 pic.twitter.com/Io6PRa0BlE
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 17, 2019
The headline seems to be mixing emergencies. (I sympathize. It can certainly be hard to keep up.)
TPM: You need to fix the lede on the front page for this story. It currently says: “Iran To Europe: Do More To Save The Nuclear Deal!”
Thank you California. So often warming the cockles of my heart (whatever in hell cockles are).
I haven’t seen a story here or many other places about Trump’s evident desire to punish California for its various challenges to his misrule, but I think one harm they could prove is his animus against them over political opposition.