GOP leader unsure on legality of Trump’s emergency declaration | TheHill - The Hill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHouse to push back at Trump on border Democrats block abortion bill in Senate  Overnight Energy: Climate protesters storm McConnell’s office | Center-right group says Green New Deal could cost trillion | Dire warnings from new climate studies MORE (R-Ky.) says he has yet to determine whether President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE’s emergency declaration to build border barriers is legal.

Asked for his legal opinion after meeting with a Department of Justice lawyer at a Tuesday luncheon of the GOP conference, McConnell said, “I haven’t reached a total conclusion.”

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McConnell said while he graduated from law school, he’s not an expert on constitutional questions of separations of power.

“I wouldn’t go, to me, for a simple will,” he said, while noting, “I did go to law school.”

“We had real serious lawyers in there discussing that very issue,” he said, summarizing the lunchtime discussion with Vice President Pence and the senior lawyer from Justice.

“We had a very fulsome discussion of this issue in the conference at noon today with the vice president,” McConnell added.

He described his GOP colleagues as “extremely interested” in the topic.

“We really do think there’s a crisis at the border,” he added.

Three Republican senators — Susan CollinsSusan Margaret CollinsHouse to push back at Trump on border Hillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (Maine), Lisa MurkowskiLisa Ann MurkowskiHouse to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration Pence meeting with Senate GOP ahead of vote to block emergency declaration MORE (Alaska) and Thom TillisThomas (Thom) Roland TillisGOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump Don’t look for House GOP to defy Trump on border wall MORE (N.C.) — say they will support a Democratic-sponsored resolution of disapproval on the emergency declaration.

McConnell said it will come up for a vote on the Senate floor before the recess scheduled for mid-March.

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https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/431658-gop-leader-unsure-on-legality-of-trumps-emergency-declaration

2019-02-26 19:58:24Z