The money included in the tentative government funding bill means a "down payment" toward a border wall, and President Donald Trump has "more tools in his toolbox," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday.
"He can go and grab more money and finish the wall, but the most important thing here is that the wall is being built," the California Republican told Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime."
Further, "everybody knows" Trump can legally declare a border emergency, said McCarthy.
"He can grab other money that's out there and use that to build the wall, to finish off from the $1.4 billion that's inside this bill," said McCarthy. "We have 55 miles, but the president wanted to go a full 200 miles...but he can grab other entities that have money and finish that as we go."
He said he hasn't yet read the bill, and care must be taken to make sure the wall construction is done in the top three places experts say barriers are needed.
Meanwhile, Democrats don't want to give Trump a victory, said McCarthy.
"From Nancy Pelosi's view, she said that walls are immoral, but the president is getting a victory there," said McCarthy. "They try to eliminate the beds. We have the same cap that we had before. So maybe they can't expand too far, but we have the ability to do that. What it really is . . . is not providing the $5 billion, just one-tenth of 1 percent of the whole budget."
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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