South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham phoned Trump while he was in the car on Pennsylvania Avenue to inform him that he, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse were on the way.
Graham said the group “barged” into dinner last night and he made clear that if the President would support a proposal from Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah to limit the length of national emergency declarations, then it would minimize Republican defections “dramatically.”
The trio had made an unsuccessful attempt earlier in the afternoon to sit down with Trump, but White House aides said it was too late and didn’t see the point in bringing them over. Trump had already told staff he was resigned to issuing his first veto after it became clear that enough Republicans will support the measure to overturn the declaration.
The lawmakers had found themselves in a tough position: break with the President or vote against something they agree with. They wanted some kind of agreement that if they voted against the measure Thursday, then Trump wouldn’t utilize his executive power like this again in the future.
So they showed up at the White House uninvited Wednesday night while Trump was having dinner. Sources told CNN the meeting went downhill fast as Trump grew frustrated at attempts to limit his ability to declare national emergencies in the future. A White House lawyer was brought in to point out problems with the idea and explain why it wouldn’t work for the White House, a source said. The overall meeting itself, the source said, was “just unproductive.”
White House aides are now bracing for an embarrassing rebuke when the Senate votes on the resolution to overturn their boss’s emergency declaration. Despite the pressure campaign they waged for the last week, Trump’s top aides now say as many as 14 Republican senators are expected to break with the President.
Graham told reporters Thursday the President listened intently during their meeting.
“I said I don’t expect you to give up any powers of the President that you think is necessary but if you could find a way to sit down and bridge the gap here prospectively it would be in everybody’s best interest,” Graham said.
“We’ll see what happens,” Graham added. “It may bear fruit.”
Though Trump called into a Republican Senate lunch Wednesday to make clear via speakerphone that he would not support a proposal to limit future national emergency declarations to 30 days, he seemed to reverse course on Twitter Thursday.
“Prominent legal scholars agree that our actions to address the National Emergency at the Southern Border and to protect the American people are both CONSTITUTIONAL and EXPRESSLY authorized by Congress,” Trump wrote. “….If, at a later date, Congress wants to update the law, I will support those efforts, but today’s issue is BORDER SECURITY and Crime!!! Don’t vote with Pelosi!”
Senate Republicans were caught off guard by Trump’s tweet that he would support future changes to limit his authority on national emergencies, according to multiple Senate aides, but it’s unlikely it will have a significant effect on the final vote count.
“Too little, too late,” one senior GOP aide said. It may sway a few on-the-fence senators, but the resolution is still expected to pass with a number of GOP defections. Shortly after the President’s tweet, Utah Senator Mitt Romney announced he would support the resolution to terminate the national emergency. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander then came to the floor and called Trump’s declaration “inconsistent with the United States Constitution that I took an oath to support and defend.” An aide later told CNN he would also support the resolution to terminate the national emergency declaration.
While Trump is prepared to issue his first veto, his focus now is on stemming the margin by which the bill will pass. Trump hopes the number of “yes” votes will stay below 60, aides say, a symbolic margin that he believes would save some embarrassment, though still require him to use his veto pen.
In internal conversations, Trump has characterized the vote as a loyalty test, even though some of those who say they will vote for it, including Lee and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, have proven to be allies on other issues in the past. Even as members of his staff were focused Wednesday on managing the Boeing plane crisis, Trump himself remained preoccupied with the looming vote, according to people who spoke with him.
He’s fired off tweets. He’s made direct appeals to lawmakers over the phone. And senators who attended a Wednesday meeting on trade also heard a bid from Trump on the national emergency, though at that stage he had already conceded the vote would likely pass.
This story has been updated to include additional developments Thursday.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Sunlen Serfaty and Lauren Fox contributed to this report.
Source : Nbcnewyork
