Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Just Announced She's Planning to Come For Donald Trump's National Emergency Declaration, and People Are So Here For It

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Just Announced She's Planning to Come For Donald Trump's National Emergency Declaration, and People Are So Here For It
Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images (left); Angela Weiss/AFP/GettyImages (right)

Boom.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) announced she will introduce a bill with fellow Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro to halt President Donald Trump's planned national emergency declaration.

In response to the news, first reported by Bloomberg, Ocasio-Cortez promised that she and her colleague "aren't going to let the President declare a fake national emergency without a fight."


Details about the legislation are forthcoming. In a statement of his own, Castro signaled that the president will face a heap of legal challenges in response to the declaration, which the president will use to access billions of dollars to construct a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border after Congress denied his requests for funding.

"If President Trump declares a national emergency to fund his border wall, I’m prepared to introduce a resolution to terminate the President’s emergency declaration,” Castro said, a nod to the National Emergencies Act, legislation that allows Congress to void the emergency declaration with a joint resolution.

As Castro noted in his statement:

The National Emergencies Act (NEA) includes a process by which Congress can terminate a national emergency through expedited legislative procedures by enacting a joint resolution. Under the NEA, a joint resolution to terminate a declared national emergency must be reported out of the committee of jurisdiction within 15 calendar days and considered on the floor within 3 calendar days after being reported. The joint resolution must then be referred to the appropriate committee of the Senate with an identical expedited process and timeline.

Many cheered the young Congresswoman and her cohort on as they sent the first of what are sure to be many challenges––legal and otherwise––to an announcement that was considered controversial well before it was formally made.

Earlier, Ocasio-Cortez joined many in Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in accusing the president of manufacturing a "crisis."

Aiding criticism that the crisis is fake: The president's own reasoning for declaring a national emergency in the first place.

“I could do the wall over a longer period of time,” he told NBC’s Peter Alexander when asked about his prior statements on the merits of executive orders, which he had long accused former President Barack Obama of using to circumvent the decisions of Congress. “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster."

As he continued to speak during the news conference, the president outlined what would happen next:

“We will have a national emergency. And we will then be sued… And we will possibly get a bad ruling. And then we will get another bad ruling. And then we will end up in the Supreme Court.”

That statement alone has also opened up the president to criticism.

"Trump predicts that he will lose in court on his national emergency. Until it gets to the Supreme Court. Where he has appointed two justices with long track records of supporting expansive claims of executive power," said The Washington Post's James Hohmann.

Responding to the president's statement that he "didn't have to" declare a national emergency, Financial Times editor Edward Luce said: "Trump has just told the Supreme Court why to strike down his national emergency."

The declaration of a national emergency is the culmination of a long fight over funding for the president’s pet project that resulted in a shutdown that kicked off in December 2018 after he declined to sign a stopgap funding bill because he disagreed with the decision of Congress not to provide the funding he’d requested for his proposed border wall. As the shutdown wore on, he insisted that it was simply a ploy by Democrats to cost him re-election.

The news that Trump would declare a national emergency was first confirmed to reporters by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said Trump would sign the measure to avoid another government shutdown.

Although McConnell urged Trump not to invoke his emergency powers, he is standing by his decision anyway, a decision that did not escape the ire of conservative pundit Ann Coulter, who noted that declaring a national emergency would do nothing and that all Republicans, whom she accused of “selling out their constituents” would need to do is to pass a bipartisan spending bill with a veto-proof majority.

In a statement, McConnell called the president's decision "the predictable and understandable consequence of Democrats' decision to put partisan obstruction ahead of the national interest."

The GOP has continued to face heavy criticism for placating the president and claiming that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s unwillingness to negotiate had caused the shutdown.

In reality, the president preemptively accepted ownership of a then-possible shutdown.

“I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck. … I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it,” he told Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office on December 11.

The president has insisted that border security is unachievable without a wall at the southern border. He’s been quick to remind the American people this as the government shutdown over the wall’s funding rages on and continues to use his Twitter account to advocate for the wall’s construction.

More from People/alexandria-ocasio-cortez

Mara Wilson; Michelle Trachtenberg
Alberto E. Rodriguez/FilmMagic; Jemal Countess/Getty Images

Child Star Mara Wilson Recalls Michelle Trachtenberg Crying Over Cruel Childhood Bullying

Writer and child star Mara Wilson has opened up about what it was like to grow up with fellow actor Michelle Trachtenberg in a heartfelt essay for Vulture.

Trachtenberg, perhaps best known as the titular Harriet the Spy, and later for her role on Gossip Girl, passed away suddenly on February 26 at just 39 years old.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jason Isaacs; Donald Trump
MSNBC, JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Video Of 'White Lotus' Star Epically Ripping Trump During Live MSNBC Interview Resurfaces

A star promoting a new season of a highly popular TV series usually shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes and rarely touches on major current events.

This wasn't the case when The White Lotus actor Jason Isaacs stopped by MSNBC last month to discuss his character, Timothy Ratliff—a self-centered financier from Durham, North Carolina, who is under investigation for a shady business venture with an associate while away on vacation with his family.

Keep ReadingShow less
Valentina Gomez
@ValentinaForUSA/X

Far-Right Candidate Suggests Murdering Migrants Is 'Cheaper Than Deportation' In Disgusting Post

Far-right MAGA activist Valentina Gomez drew social media outrage for posting a screenshot from a video violently depicting the execution of a migrant criminal.

In the disturbing image, the 25-year-old real-estate investor and political activist from Medellín, Colombia, points a gun at a dummy meant to represent a migrant tied to a chair. Smoke emanates from the cloaked figure's head, suggesting that she's just fired a shot.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kristen Welker and Ty Cobb
NBC News

Former Trump White House Lawyer Calls Trump Administration 'Lawless' In Eye-Popping Interview

During an interview with Meet the Press Now host Kristen Welker, Ty Cobb, who served as an attorney for the first Trump administration, called out Trump 2.0 for having "no respect for the rule of law."

Cobb's remarks came as the Trump administration gears up for a legal battle over the Alien Enemies Act after President Donald Trump invoked it on Saturday, clearing the way for him to deport over 250 undocumented immigrants purportedly from Venezuela with little to no due process.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Greg Gutfeld; John Roberts
Fox News; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Fox Host Throws Tantrum After John Roberts Calls Out Trump: 'Roberts, Shut The F Up!'

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld was called out after he attacked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for criticizing President Donald Trump's call for a federal judge to be impeached after the judge ruled against his administration in an immigration case.

The Trump administration was already gearing up for a legal battle over the Alien Enemies Act after Trump invoked it on Saturday to justify his deportation of over 250 undocumented immigrants purportedly from Venezuela with little to no due process.

Keep ReadingShow less