WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, March 14, 2019

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1/ The Senate voted to overturn Trump's national emergency declaration at the southern border, setting up Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency. The resolution passed 59-41 – with 12 Republicans joining every Democrat. The measure, which already passed the House, now heads to Trump, who has promised to veto the legislation and effectively kill it. Lawmakers don't have enough votes to override a veto. Ahead of the vote, Trump warned Republicans that "a vote for today's resolution by Republican Senators is a vote for Nancy Pelosi, Crime, and the Open Border Democrats!" After the vote, Trump tweeted: "VETO!" (New York Times/ CNBC / Washington Post / Politico / Associated Press / CNN / Reuters / NBC News)

• ???? Day 757: Trump declared a national emergency at the border to circumvent Congress and fund his border wall with money lawmakers refused to give him, saying "I didn't need to do this," but "I just want to get it done faster, that's all." In a Rose Garden news conference, Trump said he would sign the declaration to divert $3.6 billion from military construction projects to his border wall and then use presidential budgetary discretion to redirect $2.5 billion from counternarcotics programs and another $600 million from a Treasury Department asset forfeiture fund. Between the $1.375 billion authorized for fencing in a spending package passed by Congress, and the roughly $6.5 billion in funding from executive action, Trump is will have about $8 billion to construct or repair as many as 234 miles of a border barrier – significantly more than the $5.7 billion that Congress refused to give him. Following the news conference, Trump signed the spending legislation. (New York Times / The Guardian / Politico / Washington Post / NBC News / ABC News)

2/ The House voted 420-0 for the public release of Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired then-director of the FBI James Comey. While the resolution is non-binding and the H...

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