The 12 Senate Republicans who defied Trump and voted to terminate the border wall national emergency
- Twelve Republican senators on Thursday voted in favor of a resolution to terminate President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration to build his border wall.
- This is a major rebuke of Trump and led the president to tweet "VETO!" minutes after the vote — an apparent threat to sign the first veto of his presidency.
- The resolution already passed in the Democrat-controlled House in February, but this is particularly embarrassing for Trump given Republicans have a majority in the Senate.
A dozen Republican senators on Thursday voted in favor of a resolution to terminate President Donald Trump's controversial national emergency aimed at obtained funding for a wall along the US-Mexico border.
The Senate voted 59-41 to pass the resolution.
This is a major legislative embarrassment for Trump, and comes just a day after the Senate also rebuked the president by passing a resolution to end US support for Saudi Arabia in the Yemen conflict.
Trump tweeted "VETO!" minutes after the vote — an apparent threat to issue the first veto of his presidency in hopes of gaining funding for his border wall and deliver on one of his central 2016 campaign pledges.
Here are the 12 GOP senators who defied Trump and voted in favor of the resolution:
- Rand Paul of Kentucky: "Every single Republican I know decried President Obama's use of executive power to legislate. We were right then. But the only way to be an honest officeholder is to stand up for the same principles no matter who is in power."
- Mitt Romney of Utah: "We experienced a similar erosion of congressional authority with President Obama's unilateral immigration orders — which I strenuously opposed. In the case before us now, where Congress has enacted specific policy, to consent to an emergency declaration would be both inconsistent with my beliefs and contrary to my oath to defend the constitution."
- Marco Rubio of Florida: "We have an emergency at our border, which is why I support the president’'s use of forfeiture funds and counter-drug money to build a wall. However, I cannot support moving funds that Congress explicitly appropriated for construction and upgrades of our military bases. This would create a precedent a future president may abuse to jumpstart programs like the Green New Deal, especially given the embrace of socialism we are seeing on the political left."
- Mike Lee of Utah: "This is not about the president. This is not about my disagreement with or disapproval of the president or his approach to border security or his approach to build a barrier along our southern border. I think all those things need to happen. But this law, Mr. President, is wrong. It's not President Trump's fault. It's Congress'. We need to change it."
- Roy Blunt of Missouri: "This issue will be settled in the courts. That could take months and result in future Presidents having emergency authority to use in other ways...I was aggressively opposed to the Obama administration’s attempts to circumvent Congress’s appropriating authority to prop up Obamacare. The same principle should apply regardless of which party occupies the White House."
- Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania: "This is not about border security.It's about the process the president has chosen for funding that policy...The biggest concern is that it’s very, very important that we honor the constitutional responsibility that is assigned to Congress to determine spending."
- Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
- Susan Collins of Maine
- Roger Wicker of Mississippi
- Rob Portman of Ohio
- Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
- Jerry Moran of Kansas
This article will continue to be updated.