Friday, March 15 marked the first time President Donald Trump utilized his right to veto a resolution.
The president enacted his veto in order to reject a bipartisan resolution that would have blocked his national emergency declaration. This declaration was, of course, issued to address the problems taking place primarily at the southern border.
“Today I am vetoing this resolution. Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution and I have the duty to veto it,” President Trump said.
The resolution Trump vetoed came to his desk after 12 Senate Republicans joined forces with Democrats to deny the administration the authority to take unilateral action at the border. Even though GOP and the White House tried hard to keep the Republican Party united, which would have killed the resolution, the measure did pass with a 59-41 vote. Trump immediately vowed to veto the measure, and followed through with that promise. Trump felt it was necessary for him to veto the resolution because it was what he termed “dangerous.’ He said it would have revoked border operations that had been put into place via the emergency declaration.
Trump made sure to thank the Republicans who stood strong with him against the resolution.
“I have to in particular thank Republicans, strong Republicans senators that were on our side and on the side of border security,” he said.
President Trump originally declared an emergency at the border earlier in the month. It was a move to counter the fact that Congress granted him only a fraction of the funding he requested to secure the southern border. By declaring a national emergency, President Trump was able to direct an additional $3.6 billion towards the construction of the border wall.
Some Republicans, as mentioned above, joined forces with those across the aisle and voted for the resolution to revoke the national emergency declaration. As one would expect, they don’t feel their vote against the emergency declaration means they are against a secure border. One of these Republicans was Senator Mitt Romney of Utah.
“This is a constitutional question, it’s a question of a balance of power that is core to our constitution,” Romney said. “This is not about the president or border security, in fact, I support border security, I support a barrier.”
Here are all the Republican senators who voted with Democrats to overturn the national emergency declaration:
- Mike Lee (Utah)
- Rob Portman (Ohio)
- Susan Collins (Maine)
- Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
- Marco Rubio (Florida)
- Rand Paul (Kentucky)
- Lamar Alexander (Tennessee)
- Roger Wicker (Mississippi)
- Roy Blunt (Montana)
- Jerry Morgan (Kansas)
- Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)
Although Republican Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina originally determined to oppose the declaration, when the matter hit the Senate floor, he reversed course. He stood on the Senate floor and said he was “sympathetic” towards the President’s difficulty dealing with the crisis at the border. The senator had previously introduced a bill that would end all future emergency declarations after 30 days’ time. The idea was to give hesitant Republicans motivation to vote against the resolution. President Trump didn’t back the Lee legislation, though, leading Lee to come back on board with regard to the measure to rebuff Trump’s emergency declaration. Lee’s actions prove supporting the measure was a difficult choice for many Republicans to make.
In conclusion, although many critics claim President Trump is power hungry, the fact that this veto was the first of his administration proves exactly the opposite. For comparison’s sake, consider the fact that President Barack Obama used his power of veto 12 times, George W. Bush also employed his veto power 12 times, and Bill Clinton used his a whopping 37 times.
~ Patriotic Freedom Fighter
