SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
U.S. President Donald Trump during a Rose Garden press event at the White House February 15, 2019 in Washington, DC. Trump said he would declare a national emergency to free up federal funding to build a wall along the southern border. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
'I Didn't Need To Do This': Watch That Little Moment in Bizarre Speech When Trump Admits National Emergency Is a Sham
It was a comment, several noted, "that you can bet is going to be cited in lawsuits against this national emergency."
Feb 14, 2019
Amid the bizarre calvacade of lies, false assertions, exploitive tropes, and sing-song explanations of the likely legal battle to come over his national emergency declaration on Friday morning at the White House, President Donald Trump let one little thing--obvious to many--slip.
"I didn't need to do this," Trump declared - a central admission in which he further explained that he just wanted his wall, which Congress has repeatedly and in a bipartisan manner refused to fund, "faster" than the legislative process will allow. A very strange thing to say about an emergency.
Watch:
As Aaron Blake at the Washington Post wrote in response: "If it's truly an emergency, how can you say you didn't need to declare an emergency? Trump basically admitted that this was a choice for him -- a matter of expediency, quite literally -- and not something required by events on the ground."
Meanwhile, what the president's many critics have argued is that the president has created a #FakeNationalEmergency in order to grab by fiat something he could not achieve through constitutional or legal means.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) noted:
It was a comment, several journalists noted, "that you can bet is going to be cited in lawsuits against this national emergency."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Amid the bizarre calvacade of lies, false assertions, exploitive tropes, and sing-song explanations of the likely legal battle to come over his national emergency declaration on Friday morning at the White House, President Donald Trump let one little thing--obvious to many--slip.
"I didn't need to do this," Trump declared - a central admission in which he further explained that he just wanted his wall, which Congress has repeatedly and in a bipartisan manner refused to fund, "faster" than the legislative process will allow. A very strange thing to say about an emergency.
Watch:
As Aaron Blake at the Washington Post wrote in response: "If it's truly an emergency, how can you say you didn't need to declare an emergency? Trump basically admitted that this was a choice for him -- a matter of expediency, quite literally -- and not something required by events on the ground."
Meanwhile, what the president's many critics have argued is that the president has created a #FakeNationalEmergency in order to grab by fiat something he could not achieve through constitutional or legal means.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) noted:
It was a comment, several journalists noted, "that you can bet is going to be cited in lawsuits against this national emergency."
Amid the bizarre calvacade of lies, false assertions, exploitive tropes, and sing-song explanations of the likely legal battle to come over his national emergency declaration on Friday morning at the White House, President Donald Trump let one little thing--obvious to many--slip.
"I didn't need to do this," Trump declared - a central admission in which he further explained that he just wanted his wall, which Congress has repeatedly and in a bipartisan manner refused to fund, "faster" than the legislative process will allow. A very strange thing to say about an emergency.
Watch:
As Aaron Blake at the Washington Post wrote in response: "If it's truly an emergency, how can you say you didn't need to declare an emergency? Trump basically admitted that this was a choice for him -- a matter of expediency, quite literally -- and not something required by events on the ground."
Meanwhile, what the president's many critics have argued is that the president has created a #FakeNationalEmergency in order to grab by fiat something he could not achieve through constitutional or legal means.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) noted:
It was a comment, several journalists noted, "that you can bet is going to be cited in lawsuits against this national emergency."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.