By declaring a National Emergency Trump has just handed the Democrats a huuuge weapon! Use It!
Democrats should announce that they will litigate against Trump’s declaration immediately. They should not wait a minute.
Democrats should announce that they intend to use the discovery process in their lawsuit to search for any truth that could support Trump’s declaration of a National Emergency because Trump has not provided any. The Democrats should explain that nothing exists in the way of facts that would warrant a declaration of a National Emergency, and that just because Trump did not get his way with a funding appropriation in legislation Trump is instead abusing his power with the false declaration of a National Emergency.
The Democrats need to make clear that they are now demanding that the facts used by Trump and Mitch McConnell to support the declaration of a National Emergency be made public. If they exist.
The Democrats should state that they will use their lawsuit to demand every single piece of communication relied on by the White House to justify this declaration. Democrats will demand every piece of documentation for every word Trump has ever uttered to describe the crisis at the border: the crimes, the duct tape, the sex slave trades, the terrorists captured, etc., etc. Democrats will demand every communication between the White House and Congress concerning every aspect of the crisis, including any funding requests for the wall, that were relied on in this declaration. Democrats will demand every communication between the White House and every department of our government about the national crisis at the border.
The Democrats will also demand every communication between the White House and every Republican Senator and Congressman and their staff on the National Emergency and crisis at the border.
The Democrats will demand every documentation, report, study, or communication concerning Mexico paying for the wall, and will demand the plans, schedules, cost estimates, budgets and procurement status of every single wall project in the pipeline .
The Democrats need to immediately let the nation know what they intend to demand, and the Democrats need to make clear that they must demand it because the White House and Republicans in Congress shared any information that supports the declaration of a National Emergency, which begs the question: why not?
The Democrats should not wait for the legal progress to run its course. Democrats need to be in front of it, sharing the questions they have and encouraging the public to demand answers.
It is not sufficient that Trump just lose in court. The Democrats need to document just how big a liar Trump and the Republicans and the media talkers are and have been on this subject, and again tell they public why.
This declaration is the perfect time and perfect topic to do this with.
The Democrats should remind the nation that a declaration of a National Emergency must be taken seriously, that it must come from an immediate, urgent need, and that it is reprehensible for a President to abuse this power because he has been unable to persuade his Republicans in Congress to fund his wall folly promise atany point during the past two years, and that it is reprehensible that Trump’s Republican allies in Congress will allow it to happen.
Democrats need to remind the nation that the public has not been given one provable justification by Trump, or anyone in the Republican Party, or anyone in Trump’s administration for declaring a National Emergency.
Democrats can explain that the power Trump is claiming to shift defense appropriations to his wall project will be fought in court, and that the Democrats will use this legal process to obtain the proof that Trump and the Republicans have long been lying about the need for a wall and for there being a National Emergency.
Trump is headed for the golf course. Again. In the past two years he has spent 175 days at golf courses, days that could have been spent lobbying his fellow Republicans for wall money, if there really had been an emergency.
Democrats should remind the public that Trump and Mitch McConnell just used the longest shutdown in our history to try and extort money for an unneeded and non-emergency wall. Democrats should be making it known now that they will use every legal opportunity to pry from the Republicans and Trump the facts supposedly used to justify this flagrant political abuse of a shutdown and a National Emergency declaration.
Do it now.