Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have no idea the mess they’re in.
The two Democrat leaders ignited a political brawl with Donald Trump over an issue that could decide the 2020 election.
That’s when President Trump said the seven words Pelosi and Schumer were terrified to hear.
Speaker Pelosi scheduled a vote for Tuesday on a resolution of disapproval to try and block President Trump from declaring a national emergency which would unlock access to over 3 billion dollars in military construction funds to build a border wall.
Pelosi begged every member of the House to join her in a “Dear Colleague” letter.
“All Members take an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution,” Pelosi wrote.
“The President’s decision to go outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process violates the Constitution and must be terminated. We have a solemn responsibility to uphold the Constitution, and defend our system of checks and balances against the President’s assault.”
Obviously, that won’t happen.
Few – if any – Republicans will join the Democrats to kill the President’s emergency declaration.
But there is no doubt the resolution will pass the House.
At that point, it goes to the Senate where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has 18 days to schedule a vote.
And since the resolution is privileged, McConnell cannot block it from coming up.
That is where Pelosi and Schumer figured to corner Trump.
A handful of Republicans have announced their unease – or outright opposition – to the President’s move.
The resolution can pass the Senate with a simple majority vote.
The Democrats believe if enough Republicans vote for the resolution, it will deal a death blow to Trump’s re-election because his party abandoned him on his signature issue.
However, the President shook up the political calculus when he announced he would veto the resolution.
President Trump told reporters there was a “one hundred percent” chance he would issue his first veto should the resolution reach his desk.
“I don’t think it survives a veto, we have too many smart people that want border security,” Trump said in response to the veto override vote that Chuck Schumer and Pelosi would surely push for.
Trump’s emphatic veto threat should give any Republican Senator thinking of joining the Democrats pause.
Any Republican who crosses the President and votes with the Democrats would be declaring to voters in their state that they are inviting a pro-Trump primary challenger.
Other Senators saw how Jeff Flake and Bob Corker were forced to retire after their repeated betrayal on key issues like immigration eroded their political standing to the point where they could not win a primary against a pro-Trump candidate.
To be sure, RINOs Like Cory Gardner of Colorado and Susan Collins of Maine will defect.
They are liberals who falsely think appeasing the left will boost their 2020 re-election chances in a blue state.
But Trump’s veto threat makes it clear to any of the other fence-sitting Republicans that they could be casting a career-ending vote.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
