Sarah Sanders Declares Trump Has ‘Absolute Authority’ to Use National Emergency to Fund Border Wall

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made a rare television appearance to tell Americans that Donald Trump “has the absolute authority” to use a national emergency in order to secure funding for the border wall that  Mexico was supposed to pay for, and for which Mexico has not paid.

On Wednesday morning’s edition of Fox & Friends, Sanders — who has not held a press briefing since January 28 — beamed into the friendly confines in order to push back on congressional oversight, but also to support Trump’s emergency declaration.

Co-host Steve Doocy asked Sanders about Senate Republicans who are joining Democrats on a resolution to rescind Trump’s emergency declaration.

“What’s your message to those Republicans who are going to join the Democrats?” Doocy asked.

“Look,” Sanders began, employing her favorite command, “my message to that group is to do your job. If you had done what you were elected to do on the front end, then the president would not have to fix the problem on his own through a national emergency.”

“The president has the absolute authority, in fact he has a duty, to call a national emergency to fix the crisis that we have going on at our border,” Sanders claimed, then noted that the number of “illegal individuals” who crossed the border last month “could fill MetLife Stadium.”

Actually, Sanders is only partially correct. The National Emergencies Act of 1976 is extremely broad but explicitly gives Congress the authority to rescind presidential emergency declarations. So when Sanders tells members of Congress to “do your job,” rescinding emergency orders if they choose to is part of that job.

In addition to Congress, Trump’s authority to declare a national emergency under these circumstances is also subject to the courts.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

 

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