Apparently, Nancy Pelosi really cares about the Constitution. So much, in fact, that she is willing to force a toothless vote to prove it.
The House speaker acknowledged on Wednesday that blocking Trump’s national emergency veto is next to impossible, but she’s going to try to override it anyway — to make a point about Trump “defacing” the Constitution.
Pelosi to attempt veto override
President Trump issued the first veto of his presidency Friday after 12 Senate Republicans sided with the Democrats to pass a resolution blocking his national emergency powers. Trump’s veto was immediately expected to hold, since overriding it would require the support of two-thirds of both chambers of Congress.
But although Republicans defected in both the House and Senate to help pass the resolution, it’s highly unlikely that enough Senate Republicans will break with Trump to override the veto. While acknowledging that an override would fail, Pelosi said at a press conference in Manhattan on Wednesday that she plans to force the issue anyway to make a point — or, some might say, to score political points.
“Whether we can succeed with the number of votes is not the point,” Pelosi said during a press conference on immigration. “We are establishing the intent of Congress. The president has decided to be in defiance of the Constitution, to deface it, with his actions.”
Pelosi added that an unsuccessful override veto could still help Democrats challenge Trump’s national emergency in the courts while sending a message that Democrats are standing up for the rule of law against an unconstitutional power grab. Trump’s national emergency declaration has faced legal challenges from the attorneys general of 16 states.
“Establishing the intent of Congress will help us in the court of law and in the court of public opinion,” the speaker said. The House will vote March 26.
It’s about the Constitution? Not so fast
Trump first issued a national emergency in February to circumvent Congress after failing to secure money for the border wall through the legislature. While legal experts including attorney general William Barr argue that Trump’s national emergency powers are clearly outlined in the National Emergency Act, Democrats, soon joined by some Republicans, promised swiftly to block the president’s action, casting it as unlawful and dictatorial.
Now, Democrats are hopeful that periodically forcing the issue will help build a legal case against the national emergency and divide the Republican party. Democrats are casting the vote as a choice for Republicans between craven loyalty to a would-be dictator and commitment to higher principles that they, the Democrats, supposedly protect.
“I believe the law allows us to bring it up every six months, and certainly we would intend to do that,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said. For her part, Pelosi promised, “House Republicans will have to choose between their partisan hypocrisy and their sacred oath to support and defend the Constitution.”
But as some have pointed out, the Democrats’ rhetoric about the Constitution rings hollow given their full-throated support of former President Barack Obama’s executive power grabs, especially with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which shields illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from deportation.
Democrats continue to defend that Obama executive order, and in fact Pelosi was stumping for a new amnesty bill, the “American Dream and Promise Act,” which would create a pathway to citizenship for those protected by DACA — so-called DREAMers — and millions of other illegal immigrants, at the same Wednesday press conference where she vowed to override Trump’s “unconstitutional” veto.
Indeed, Pelosi’s remarks follow in a now-common tradition among Democrats of accusing the president of destroying America’s “norms” of governance and civil society. Ironically, though, Democrats have recently embraced dramatic changes to America’s constitutional framework to help them get and hold on to power, such as abolishing the Electoral College and packing the Supreme Court.
It’s odd that the Democrats suddenly realized they care about the Constitution now that Trump is in the White House. But Nancy Pelosi never misses a chance to score political points.
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