The Senate passed a resolution Thursday to overturn President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats to deliver a bipartisan rebuke to the president.
The disapproval resolution passed the House last month, so the 59-41 Senate vote will send the measure to the Trump’s desk. Trump has promised to use the first veto of his presidency to strike it down, and Congress does not have the votes to override the veto.
“VETO!” Trump tweeted moments after the vote.
Still,the Senate vote stood as a rare instance of Republicans breaking with Trump in significant numbers on an issue central to his presidency – the construction of a wall along the southern border.
Republicans who voted with Trump and against the disapproval resolution said the president was acting within his authority under the National Emergencies Act, and taking necessary steps to address a humanitarian and drug crisis at the border that Democrats had ignored.
“There is a crisis at the border and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have prevented a solution,” said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., naming the House speaker and Senate minority leader. “It should never have come to this, but in the absence of congressional action, the President did what Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer refused to do.”
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · Erica Werner, Seung Min Kim, John Wagner
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