Thursday on the Senate floor, Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said if President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, it would be “a lawless act.”

Schumer said, “If president Trump’s decides to go for was a disaster declaration he will be making a tremendous mistake. Declaring a national emergency would be a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency, and a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that President Trump broke his core promise that to have Mexico pay for the wall. It would be another demonstration of President Trump’s naked contempt of the rule of the law and congressional authority.”

He added, “Congress just debated this very issue. There was not support for the president’s position. Congressional intent on this issue is very clear. The president’s wall has been before Congress several times and has never guarded enough votes to even merit consideration. For the president to declare an emergency now would be unprecedented subversion of Congresses constitutional prerogative.”

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