Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) said if President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to get the funds to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border stands, Democrats will use those “new rules” to address climate change.
Partial transcript as follows:
GOV. INSLEE: The moment that the administration jeopardizes any federal expenditure in our state, we will file suit. And we feel good about our chances to succeed. We have done so. I’m proud to be the first governor to sue to stop the Muslim ban and we are happy there were- a judicial system to rein in this president. Look, I think it is obviously the situation here, we do not have a national security emergency. Donald Trump has a political emergency.
GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: That’s right.
GOV. INSLEE: He was unable to get Mexico to pay for his wall. He does not have the support of either party and the entire U.S. Congress on a bipartisan basis have told him his wall is a colossal mistake. He ought to be responding to real emergencies like the forest fires. We just came from a meeting with the cabinet members asking for help with the federal government with their forest fires. And climate change is burning down our forests. That’s an emergency where we ought to have the help of the federal government. We don’t have it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well–
GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: And the governor pointed out something really important. For my state, it’s $150 million dollars that we stand to lose by virtue of his national declaration for an emergency that doesn’t exist. And now he’s harming our military assets. This doesn’t make any sense and it’s completely inappropriate to a state like this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well I’ll ask you more about what moneys he’s- he is using. But Governor Inslee, you just said though that you would be open to declaring a national emergency based on climate. So how do you define when the president has the constitutional authority to declare an emergency if you say on the grounds of the border crisis as he deems it, it- it- it’s unconstitutional.
GOV. INSLEE: So I believe under our current system of democracy this action by this president is illegal and unconstitutional. That’s what I believe. And I- I think Republicans ought to stand up on their hind legs because they took an oath to the Constitution, not to Donald Trump, and reverse this decision. If that doesn’t happen we need the judicial system to reverse its decision. But ultimately in responding to the climate change emergency, we need to work together executive and legislative branch. But if there are new rules, the Republicans have to understand that Democrats will play by whatever the rules are particularly when it comes to climate change
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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