Trump Considering 'National Emergency' Declaration to Build
Wall with Military Coffers, by
Bridget Johnson, 1/4/19.
WASHINGTON -- President Trump said
it's necessary to use eminent domain to seize border properties like any other
infrastructure project, and warned at a Rose Garden press conference today that
he has thought about using "emergency powers" to grant himself
authority to build a wall without the approval of Congress.
"We could call a national
emergency because of the security of our country. Absolutely. No, we could do
it. I haven't done it. I may do it. I may do it. But we could call a national
emergency and build it very quickly and it's another way of doing it," he
said. "But if we can do it through a negotiated process, we're giving that
a shot."
House Armed Services Committee
Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) countered such a declaration would be a misuse of
military construction readiness funds. "This is as clear a statement as
any that President Trump values the construction of his wall over military
readiness and support for our troops and their families," Smith said.
Trump had just emerged from the
second White House meeting this week with congressional leaders to negotiate an
end to the government shutdown.
Outside of the White House, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called it "a lengthy and sometimes
contentious conversation with the president" that yielded no agreement.
"How do you define progress in
a meeting? When you have a better understanding of each other's position? When
you eliminate some possibilities?" Pelosi asked. "If that's a
judgment, then yes, we made some progress."
Afterward, Trump met the media
accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
(R-Calif.), Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), and Homeland Security
Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. He acknowledged that he told Pelosi and Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that the shutdown could drag on for
months or even longer than a year.
"Absolutely, I said that. I
don't think it will, but I am prepared and I think I could speak for
Republicans in the House and Republicans in the Senate," he said.
Trump was asked about lawsuits over
the seizure of border property, which some landowners predict could be tied up
court for years.
"Eminent domain is very
interesting. But without eminent domain, you wouldn't have any highways, you
wouldn't have any schools, you wouldn't have any roadways. What we're doing
with eminent domain is, in many cases, we'll make a deal up front and we've
already done that. The secretary has done a lot of that. And if we can't make a
deal, we take the land and we pay them through court process, which goes
actually very fairly quickly, and we're generous but we take the land.
Otherwise, you can never build anything," he replied.
"If you didn't use eminent
domain, you wouldn't have one highway in this country. You have to use eminent
domain. It's actually something you don't want to use it, but if you're going
to use a stretch, as an example, a pipelines and other things that go, you have
to use eminent domain, otherwise you'd never be able to buy the land.
If we had one person that wouldn't
sell us out of hundreds, just one, it only takes one, then we wouldn't be able
to build proper border security because we'd have that big opening that I was
talking to you about," the president continued. "So what happens is
some are paid upfront, you make a deal upfront and we're willing to do that in
all cases. And when they are unwilling to make a deal, which also happens, you
go to court. But in the meantime, we are able to build the border security. So
I think it's a fair process. I think it's a process that's very necessary, but
I think it's fair."
Trump said the process wouldn't hold
up moving forward on wall construction because it would be "under the
military version of eminent domain."
Trump said he's backing away from
his campaign descriptions of a tall, thick concrete wall, a vision that was
mirrored in prototypes he viewed at the California border last year. The Senate
version of the appropriations bill that Trump won't sign blocks the $1.3
billion in border spending from funding a concrete wall.
"We now have a great steel
business that's rebuilt and the United States. Steel is stronger than
concrete," he said. "If I build this wall or fence or anything the
Democrats need to call it because I'm not into names, I'm into production, I'm
into something that works, if I build a steel wall rather than a concrete wall,
it will actually be stronger than a concrete -- steel is stronger than
concrete. OK? ... I think people will like that."
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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