The emergency at the nation's southern border is one of President Donald Trump's own creation, and if he declares an emergency for wall funding, there will be lawsuits, Sen. Mazie Hirono said Friday.
"When he says things so cavalierly, 35 days of harm not just to 800,000 federal employees but the contractors and the whole country, is this a game to him?" the Hawaii Democrat told CNN's "New Day."
Hirono added that she hopes the Judiciary branch will not allow him to have such "unfettered power" that would allow him to divert funds appropriated for other purposes to the wall.
"This is why I say with this president, how can you talk sense to somebody who makes no sense?" said Hirono. "What my expectation is that by Feb. 15 we better have a bill we'll pass in the House and the Senate that will keep the government running until the end of the fiscal year. Send it to the president. He can either sign it or not."
She also on Friday said she does not know if Trump told the truth in an interview for The New York Times when he said his legal team has been informed he's not a target in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
"I don't think the FBI or the Justice Department goes around telling people whether or not they are or are not targets," she said. "Everything that comes out of the president's mouth is, in my view, subject to question."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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