GOP Rep. Brooks, CNN’s Berman Clash Over Border Security — ‘How Many Dead People Do You Have to Have, John?’

CNN “New Day” host John Berman and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) battled Friday over border security and the possibility of President Donald Trump declaring a national emergency to direct funding to build a wall.

Berman opened the interview with Brooks asking him why he thinks Trump has the authority the declare this situation a national emergency.

“Because the United States code says so,” Brooks responded.

Berman followed that response up by pointing out how the Alabama congressman has been against executive action in the past.

Brooks replied, “[O]nce again, you guys at CNN are misleading the public. Those are different circumstances than what we face today. What we are facing today is a national emergency of major proportions, and Congress has delegated to the president of the United States the right in its expressed United States code – you can look it up yourself – the right to declare a national emergency under certain circumstances. This meets that bill.”

“What’s the emergency?” the CNN host asked.

“With the southern border, we have the loss of at least 15,000 Americans a year. You have 2,000 that are homicides by illegal aliens, according to federal government data. You’ve got another 15,000, 16,000 that die each year from heroin overdoses, 90 percent of which comes across our porous southern border. That’s not counting the 55,000 additional deaths that are caused by overdoses, a significant amount of which comes across the southern border,” Brooks stated. “So, how many dead people do you have to have, John, before you’ll consider it an emergency?”

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