Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, accused both Republicans and Democrats of degrading and playing partisan politics with constitutional principle at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday.
In keeping with the conference’s theme, “what makes America great,” Lee pointed to the constitutional balance of power as the reason the U.S. has established and maintained the model for democratic governance around the world, and warned against both political parties for shifting away from the Founding Fathers’ constitutional framework.
“We have deviated from those principles under the leadership of Houses of Representatives, of Senates, and of White Houses of every conceivable partisan combination,” Lee, who is a constitutional lawyer, told the CPAC crowd.
“All of a sudden on the left we see a magical resurgence, a magical reawakening of this idea that there ought to be separation of powers,” Lee said, pointing to the Democrats’ alarm surrounding Trump’s national emergency declaration on the southern border. “I almost went into anaphylactic shock when I saw [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer and [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi talking about separation of powers on national television.”
The Utah senator also mark contrasts with the Democratic leadership duo’s attitude on the issue when former President Barack Obama was in the White House, citing the administration’s decision to pursue military intervention in Libya without a formal declaration of war from Congress, and the creation of the “illegal” Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, stemming from an executive order in 2014.
“That’s great, but I wish they would have talked about it sooner. Where was the outright over the violation of the constitution and separation of power over the last decade?” he added.
Lee is one of the six senators to announce opposition to Trump’s border wall national emergency announcement, saying that he prefers any border wall funding be done with approval from Congress.
