The Patriot Post® · Trump's First Veto

President Trump was up early Thursday and tweeting up a storm. The president was making the case for his national emergency declaration at the southern border and urging Senate Republicans to stand with him in opposition to the Democrats’ resolution of disapproval. 

Here are a few of the president’s statements:

“A big National Emergency vote today by The United States Senate on Border Security & the Wall (which is already under major construction). I am prepared to veto, if necessary. The Southern Border is a National Security and Humanitarian Nightmare, but it can be easily fixed!”

“The Democrats are ‘Border Deniers.’ They refuse to see or acknowledge the Death, Crime, Drugs and Human Trafficking at our Southern Border!”

“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…”

“A vote for today’s resolution by Republican Senators is a vote for Nancy Pelosi, Crime, and the Open Border Democrats!”

The president is right on all counts. 

As we have noted before, there is an emergency at the border. Even the liberal media — the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal — acknowledge the crisis.

There is no question that the president has the authority to declare such an emergency. Congress gave him that authority. It has been used more than 50 times and by every president since Jimmy Carter.

Vice President Pence made several trips to Capitol Hill in recent days attempting to broker a deal to limit the president’s future ability to invoke the National Emergencies Act of 1976. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi torpedoed that option, saying she would not allow the House to vote on such a deal. 

I understand why Democrats want to stop the president from building his border wall. As he noted in his early morning tweets, the Democrats support open borders. And every single Senate Democrat voted for the resolution of disapproval.

What I don’t understand is why any Republican, under the circumstances that exist at the border today, would vote with the open borders Democrats. Sadly, 12 did. They are: 

Lamar Alexander (TN)
Roy Blunt (MO)
Susan Collins (ME)
Mike Lee (UT)
Jerry Moran (KS)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Rand Paul (KY)
Rob Portman (OH)
Mitt Romney (UT)
Marco Rubio (FL)
Pat Toomey (PA)
Roger Wicker (MS)

With their support, the Democrat resolution of disapproval passed the Senate on a vote of 59-to-41, forcing President Trump to issue his first veto.

Sweet 16?

Former punk rocker and Texas Congressman Robert Francis, aka Beto, O'Rourke jumped into the 2020 Democrat presidential scrum yesterday. Beto’s entry makes him the 16th Democrat to officially announce their candidacy for president. You can learn about the other candidates here.

O'Rourke has staked out extreme positions like abolishing ICE, tearing down the border barriers we currently have and support for late-term abortions. He also supports the Green New Deal, which bans fossil fuels. That should go over well in Texas!

Beto’s entry into the race is proof positive that there are no limits to how far out of the mainstream you can be and still run for the Democrat presidential nomination. 

That said, I expect O'Rourke will be on the VP shortlist for the eventual Democrat nominee, assuming he doesn’t win the nomination. In fact, a Bernie/Beto ticket would harken back to the 1960 New England/Texas ticket of JFK and LBJ — except Bernie is no JFK and LBJ would lift Beto by his ears!

Truth Matters

Much of the news lately has centered on the principle of “Thou shall not lie.” Many people in my generation were taught at an early age about young George Washington cutting down the cherry tree. When Washington’s father confronted him, little George replied, “Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree." 

I have to say, that story about the honesty of our first president left quite an impression on me when I was growing up. 

But we don’t teach that story anymore because someone determined it was a fable. Sadly, there aren’t many young people looking up to Washington anymore. He’s just another dead white man who owned slaves. 

And for decades, left-wing elites have done everything possible to ensure that kids never see a copy of the Ten Commandments in the public square. 

It often seems that there aren’t very many people in positions of power and influence who cherish the commandment against lying. Truth is relative today. In fact, you will often hear liberal politicians talking about "his truth” or “her truth” as if we all have our own truth.

Anti-Semitism, lies about Jews, has made news lately. And, of course, there has been a lot of fake news in recent years designed to confuse the American people.

The big story this week is that a lot of rich people in Hollywood lied to get their kids into college. By the way, the colleges and universities that the rich liberals lied to get their kids into are lying to their students about the truth of America. 

Meanwhile, Jussie Smollett was in court yesterday. He lied about a hateful assault, something that could have caused a race riot. And seldom does a day go by when we don’t learn more about the lies of the deep state and its meddling in the 2016 election. 

By the way, it’s almost tax season. Need I say more?