Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd said President Donald Trump united the opposition and “divided his own party” by declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Dowd said, “As you listen to all this and you kept hearing, ignore all the facts and just pay attention to what you might feel in this. Of course, that’s where the president is on this. I think the president, normally presidents if they do something in the country, they usually want to unite their party and divide the opposition. I think what the president just did was unite the opposition and divided his own party in the midst of it.”
He added, “There is a question of whether or not we should explore changing the way presidents do this, which I believe we need to do. There has been much too much movement to an imperial presidency in the country, including the war powers of the president and the decisions that have been made, and every president for the last 50 years has made more and more steps. It’s a big step, and it’s a political loser for the president because he hasn’t defined the problem in a way Americans understand and a majority of Americans one, are opposed to the wall and two, are opposed to executive action.”
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