illegal activity. the president believes there s a crisis on the southern border. he had william barr next to him there in the oval office to give him backup on the legal front. the president praising the 41 republican senators that stood by him. don t forget, the argument in the senate was for democrats but now for republicans and the border barrier and whether the president should build one. it s how he gets to that point. the president wanted this emergency declaration so he could reprogram $3.6 from the military construction budget over to the construction of a border barrier. that required an emergency declaration for him to do it. he s also got other money he got from congress. he s got money from forfeiture funds and other money in the fund. he wanted more and why he wanted the emergency declaration. the president using the attorney general, the vice president, the
government. he plans to raid nearly 35% of the entire construction budget is going to be diverted without congressional approval. to me, this is a clear violation of congress s article one powers under the constitution. so i am amazed at the i think republicans have to go back on that. these projects were these are requested by the president of the united states and the secretary of defense as essential and the president said he didn t think these were too important. that s not what they told congress. i want to play something that senator graham had to say this week and display this for our viewers. let s just say for a moment that he took some money out of the military construction budget. i d say it s better for the
here is the attack. he plans to raid nearly 35% of the entire construction budget is going to be diverted without congressional approval. to me, this is a clear violation of congress s article one powers under the constitution. so i am amazed at the i think republican prone ys have to go that. these are requested by the president of the united states and the secretary of defense as essential and the president said he didn t think these were too important. that s not what they told congress. i want to play something that senator graham had to say this week and display this for our viewers. let s just say for a moment that he took some money out of the military construction budget. i d say it s better for the middle school kids in kentucky
congress, even though it doesn t need an emergency declaration. the only thing the president needs an emergency declaration for let s put that up on the screen for you is the $3.6 billion from the military construction budget to build the wall. so, $3.6 billion is what s going to be held up in court. in the meantime, the president has at least $2.3 billion immediately on hand. maybe in the weeks come, $4.5 billion that he can use to build a wall. it s not the $5.7 billion that he wanted initially, but it s a whole heck of a lot closer than $1.37 billion. there is not much congress can do to stop him from using at least half of that money, melissa. melissa: great reporting, john roberts. thank you so much for that. former acting fbi director andrew mccabe making more headlines today, telling the today show that fbi opened a counterintelligence
president trump to court today. we ll be joined by at least a dozen states. the separation of powers being violated, we will go out there and make sure that donald trump cannot steal money from the states and the people who need them since we pay the taxpayer dollars to washington, d.c., to get those services. more than half of the $8 billion the white house identified to build the border wall does not depend on the emergency declaration. the $1.37 billion from congress can be used immediately, as can the $601 million from a treasury forfeiture fund and money already in dod s counter drug fund. reprogramming $2.2 billion in the dod budget into that counter drug fund will take a little longer. the only thing that requires the emergency declaration is shifting $3.6 billion in the military construction budget to build the wall. white house officials say president trump is on solid legal ground to do that.