Two congressional Republicans on Sunday declined to say that they would vote against President Donald Trump’s use of an emergency declaration in order to secure more border wall funds — though they emphasized that they weren’t thrilled with his decision, either.
“I won’t vote to try to block it,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a frequent cable news presence, told CBS “Face the Nation” host Margeret Brennan on Sunday.
“Look, I wish this would have happened a different way,” Kinzinger continued, before noting that he’d voted for immigration reform legislation in the past.
Brennan interjected: “But you think this is constitutional for the President to bypass the power of the purse strings of Congress?”
“I do,” Kinzinger said, saying that the “the amount of drugs coming over the border, and the human trafficking” constitutes a national emergency.
WHAT I SAW: "It was extremely disturbing," @RepKinzinger recounts of his deployment along the U.S.-Mexico border https://t.co/1vECFN7ipF pic.twitter.com/GN4nuEyu0F
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 24, 2019
Separately on “Face The Nation,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) said “I don’t know yet” how he would vote on a congressional revocation of Trump’s emergency declaration, which appears destined to pass the House and arrive in the Senate for a vote this week.
He added: “I don’t think that the emergency declaration law was written to deal with things that the President asked the Congress to do and then the Congress didn’t do. It’s never been used that way before.”
Blunt predicted that the issue “will be decided in the courts.”
“I think it’s highly unlikely that the veto would be overridden in the House and probably not overridden in the Senate, either one,” he said, adding: “I do agree with what the President is trying to do here. I just think there is a more likely way to get it done.”
GOP POLICY CHAIR: emergency law not written "to deal with things that the president asked the Congress to do and then the Congress didn't do," @RoyBlunt tells @margbrennan https://t.co/kiyvnsYgVU pic.twitter.com/gA6gnGme7F
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 24, 2019
On “Sunday Morning Futures” with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) continued his defense of Trump’s declaration, though he acknowledged “we might lose a few Republicans in the Senate.”
“Some people believe that the emergency declaration could lead to Democrats in the future doing the same thing on other issues,” he said. “That’s not my concern. My concern is a broken border.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has said she’ll vote for the bill striking down Trump’s declaration, and Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) has signed on to the effort in House.
Three more senators would have to join Collins to defeat the declaration in the Senate — though Trump has vowed to veto any successful congressional effort reversing the declaration. FiveThirtyEight counted seven other Republican senators besides Collins who’ve said they oppose the declaration.
