Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, explained why he was not supporting a measure that would block President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The senior Alabama Republican senator told “Your World” fill-in host efforts were made to pass funding legislatively. However, in the end, his colleagues were going to have to choose between supporting Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi or “the president and national security at the border.”
“Well, I’m going to vote with the president,” Shelby explained. “In other words, I’m going to vote no on disapproval, because I believe the president has some constitutional rights and some statutory rights to do some things in an emergency. And if we have got 87,000 people a month or some months coming across the border illegally, maybe a million a year, we have got an emergency. We got some problems. And, I wish we could have addressed it all legislatively.”
“I tried to get the money,” he continued. “The Democrats wouldn’t do that. So, I’m going to support the president. This could come down to a — somebody’s going to have to choose whether they support Speaker Pelosi or they support the president and national security at the border. That might be the issue, ultimately, the way we frame it.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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