White House immigration hawk Stephen Miller says Trump is ‘guaranteed’ to VETO any attempt to override his national emergency
Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller warned Sunday that the president will protect his national emergency declaration with a veto if he has to
Congress could vote to override Friday’s declaration, which allows Trump to repurpose money to build his border wall
Simple majorities in the House and Senate could rebuke the president with a resolution of disapproval, but it would take two-thirds majorities to override him
Miller also said on ‘Fox News Sunday’ that Trump wasn’t saying anything controversial by noting that he ‘didn’t need’ to declare an emergency
Critics had pounced, suggesting the admission would work against him in court
Miller claims the president was referring to his predecessors, who took a slower, more patient approach to border security
He also contested government figures that show 80-90 per cent of drugs come into the U.S. through regular ports of entry
Miller said that’s a measure of what is intercepted – not what comes in: ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’
By DAVID MARTOSKO
DAILYMAIL.COM
17 February 2019
A top adviser to Donald Trump said Sunday that the president will issue the first veto of his term in office if Congress votes to nullify his declaration that a national emergency exists along the U.S.-Mexico border.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller said on ‘Fox News Sunday’ that ‘the president is going to protect his national emergency declaration.’
Asked if that meant Trump was ready to veto a congressional resolution, Miller added: ‘He’s going to protect his national emergency declaration, guaranteed.’
Miller downplayed the significance of the most eyebrow-raising line from Trump’s Rose Garden press event on Friday, the president’s assertion that ‘I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn’t need to do this.’
Critics pounced, speculating the admission could play a role in legal challenges to Trump’s claim that an immigration and narcotics-trafficking ’emergency’ exists along nearly 2,000 miles of America’s southern boundary.
Miller said on Sunday that Trump meant he could have chosen the more patient approach to sealing the border that his predecessors have taken.
‘We see an increasing number of people crossing the border as well as increasing violence in Mexico,’ he said.
‘What the president was saying is that like past presidents, he could choose to ignore this crisis, choose to ignore this emergency as others have. That’s not what he’s going to do.’
Miller also contested fact-checkers’ assertions that despite Trump’s complaints about a wave of trans-border drug trafficking, most narcotics smuggled into the U.S. come through regular ports of entry.
That, he said is a measure of what is intercepted – not what comes in.
‘Eighty to 90 per cent of those drugs don’t come across in unfenced areas.They come from ports of entry,’ host Chris Wallace said.
‘You apprehend the contraband there because that’s where you have the people, that’s where you have the screeners,’ Miller replied.
‘I assure you, if we had people at that same density and screeners at that same density across every single inch and mile of the Southern border, you’d have more drug interdicted in those areas. You don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t catch what you don’t catch.’
The Rest…HERE
