Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday he isn’t sure himself if President Trump’s emergency declaration about the southern U.S. border is legal, even after a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence met with GOP senators in a closed-door meeting Tuesday to help convince them that Trump acted within the boundaries of the law when he declared an emergency in order to steer $3.6 billion toward the construction of a steel slat fence on the border. But many GOP senators debated Pence on that point, and many, including McConnell, still weren’t sure what they thought about it when they left.
“We are in the process of weighing that,” McConnell said after the meeting. McConnell said he hasn’t “reached a total conclusion” about whether the move is legal, although he backs the president’s use of the declaration to build a southern border wall.
Pence brought a Justice Department lawyer to the meeting to try to convince Republicans Trump is acting within his constitutional authority to divert $3.6 billion from the military construction budget. The meeting took place just a few weeks away from when the Senate is likely to vote on a resolution disapproving of Trump’s decision.
“It dominated the entire discussion, about the legality, the appropriateness, and all the rest,” McConnell said.
The House is slated to pass a resolution on Tuesday to revoke the emergency declaration. The Senate would have to take up the resolution within 15 days, and it could easily pass because a handful of Republicans opposed to the emergency declaration appear ready to vote with the Democrats to provide the simple majority needed to send the measure to President Trump’s desk.
“I personally couldn’t handicap the outcome at this point, but we will certainly be voting on it,” McConnell said.
McConnell said the Senate would likely act before the 15 days expire and predicted a vote before lawmakers leave for a weeklong recess that begins on March 18. It will likely be considered first by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
McConnell said Republicans do not disagree with Trump about the urgent need to build more physical barriers along the southern border, but they are not aligned about how he should get the money to do it.
“There are different points of view about how to address that, and all of that will be dealt with publicly on the floor before we have the vote,” McConnell said.
Among the Republicans who plan to vote for the House resolution to revoke the national emergency is Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. He told reporters after meeting with Pence he has not changed his mind and does not believe the president has the authority to move the money already appropriated by Congress.
“My current position is, I can’t support it,” Tillis said.
