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Trump to focus on border 'crisis,' seek support for wall in televised address


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Trump to focus on border 'crisis,' seek support for wall in televised address

By Jeff Mason

 

2019-01-08T125506Z_1_LYNXNPEF070P6_RTROPTP_3_USA-SHUTDOWN.JPG

The prototypes for U.S. President Donald Trump's border wall are seen behind the border fence between Mexico and the United States, in Tijuana, Mexico January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Duenes

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will make his case to Americans on Tuesday that a wall is urgently needed to resolve what he calls a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, trying to make good on a campaign promise in a dispute that has sparked an 18-day partial government shutdown.

 

Trump's prime-time address, scheduled for 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Wednesday) will be the Republican president's latest attempt to persuade Democrats to back his push for a steel barrier on the southern border.

 

Amid his talk of crisis, Trump is considering declaring the border situation a national emergency, which could get him out of an impasse by enabling him to bypass Congress' mandate to approve federal spending and to build the wall without its approval. Such a step, however, would likely face an immediate legal challenge.

 

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Trump was unlikely to use his televised speech to declare a national emergency. It was not clear whether he might do so at a later date.

 

The White House has not said why the situation might constitute a national emergency. In television interviews on Tuesday morning, Vice President Mike Pence said Trump would tell Americans there is "a humanitarian and security crisis" at the border.

 

"We believe we can solve this through the legislative process," Pence told CBS, urging Democrats to negotiate. He did not say whether Trump had made a decision about declaring a national emergency or if the White House had completed its legal review of such a declaration.

 

MOUNTING CONCERN

A growing proportion of Americans blame Trump for the government shutdown, although Republicans mostly support his refusal to approve a budget that does not include funds for the wall, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

 

Republicans in Congress were also increasingly expressing concerns with Trump's handling of what has become a long-running dispute over the border wall.

 

Mac Thornberry, the senior Republican on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, told reporters he opposed using military funds to build a wall on the southwestern border, as Trump has suggested.

 

"Border security is very important," Thornberry said, adding: "It is not a responsibility of the Department of Defense."

 

On Monday, in an interview with the Argus Leader newspaper in South Dakota, Republican Senator Mike Rounds said the prolonged government shutdown was "frustrating," citing worries about the impact on federal workers in his home state and the possibility that low-income residents could see interruptions in food aid.

 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a statement on Tuesday, calling on Congress and Trump to end the shutdown, which it said "is harming the American people, the business community, and the economy."

 

Trump has long maintained that a border wall is needed to stem the flow of illegal immigration and drugs, and in recent weeks has made the issue a priority. Democrats, who now control the House, have consistently opposed it, calling it an expensive, inefficient and immoral way of trying to resolve immigration issues.

 

The dispute over wall funding - with Trump demanding $5.7 billion just for this year to help build it - led to a stalemate in Congress over funding for parts of the government. About a quarter of U.S. agencies have been shut down since last month and hundreds of thousands of government workers are likely to miss pay checks this week.

 

While Trump has frequently painted a picture of an "unprecedented crisis" of illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border, illegal crossings there have dropped dramatically in recent years. There were nearly 400,000 apprehensions on the border in the 2018 fiscal year, far lower than in the early 2000s when arrests regularly topped 1 million annually.

 

But in recent years, the border has seen many more Central American families and unaccompanied children turning up - sometimes in caravans of thousands of people - to seek asylum, and the government does not have the facilities to take care of them.

 

Despite the focus on the border with Mexico, most immigrants living in the United States without authorization entered with visas and then stayed on when their documents expired.

 

NOT THE 'AMERICAN WAY'

All major U.S. television networks agreed to broadcast Trump's speech, prompting Democrats to seek equal air time.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer will deliver a televised response after Trump speaks.

 

Democrats have said they support increased border security measures such as additional U.S. border agents and technology, but have rejected the administration's assertions about the security risks at the border and have raised concerns that Trump will use his speech to present a false narrative.

 

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said if Trump declared a national emergency, the president would be like authoritarian leaders of other nations who use martial law to circumvent the rule of law.

 

“We don’t think that’s the American way,” Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday.

 

Trump will continue pressing his case for the wall with a trip to the border on Thursday.

 

Federal employees will feel the pinch from the shutdown on Friday, when they will miss their paychecks for the first time, unless a deal is reached. The shutdown, which has left some 800,000 government workers furloughed or working without pay, is also affecting national parks, airline security screening, housing and food aid, and economic data.

 

Trump's promise of a wall was a signature issue in his 2016 White House run. He said Mexico would pay for it, although Mexico was always clear it would not, and he has now turned to Congress for the money.

 

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Alex Alper, Ginger Gibson, Patricia Zengerle and Mike Stone in Washington and Kenneth Li and Mica Rosenberg in New York; Writing by Alistair Bell and Richard Cowan; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-01-09
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This from an NBC report;      Figures from the federal government’s Department of Customs and Border Protection reveal that only SIX (yes 6) people on a security watchlist were detained over a six-month period at the Mexican border. State Department reports on terrorism have expressed more concern about suspects travelling in from Canada than Mexico.           This is the national emergency Trump has concocted.

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I only wished the USA's greatest "crisis" was the US-Mexico border (also see the above posts). 

 

Aren't there greater concerns with the South China Sea, Taiwan, N. Korea, the Middle East, etc.? 

 

Oh yeah, I've also heard something about Russia which has kept some federal agents busy.  Like Trump is going to make that into a big deal.

 

But, the Mexican border and its ragtag Central American migrants results in a national, prime-time TV speech from the president.

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2 minutes ago, helpisgood said:

I only wished the USA's greatest "crisis" was the US-Mexico border (also see the above posts). 

 

Aren't there greater concerns with the South China Sea, Taiwan, N. Korea, the Middle East, etc.? 

 

Oh yeah, I've also heard something about Russia which has kept some federal agents busy.  Like Trump is going to make that into a big deal.

 

But, the Mexican border and its ragtag Central American migrants results in a national, prime-time TV speech from the president.

Maybe he'll pull a last minute switch, like he often does, just before broadcast (less than 1 hour from now) and address one of brewing threats that you mentioned above. Not too many people are aware that the USA is currently flexing its muscles in the South China Sea. "The Chinese military has moved to intercept U.S. warships sailing through the contested South China Sea in the latest of what has been a series of tense encounters surrounding the two powers in the Asia-Pacific."

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1 minute ago, neeray said:

Maybe he'll pull a last minute switch, like he often does, just before broadcast (less than 1 hour from now) and address one of brewing threats that you mentioned above. Not too many people are aware that the USA is currently flexing its muscles in the South China Sea. "The Chinese military has moved to intercept U.S. warships sailing through the contested South China Sea in the latest of what has been a series of tense encounters surrounding the two powers in the Asia-Pacific."

I don't think he'll touch the South China sea issue, as he is scrambling to put a trade deal together with China to save the stock market. Again, knee-jerk stupid moves result in negative geo-political implications and loss of influence for the US abroad.

 

Besides, his base doesn't give a crap about China controlling the South China sea. They don't even know where that is. Come to think of it, neither does Trump....

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8 minutes ago, keemapoot said:

I don't think he'll touch the South China sea issue, as he is scrambling to put a trade deal together with China to save the stock market. Again, knee-jerk stupid moves result in negative geo-political implications and loss of influence for the US abroad.

 

Besides, his base doesn't give a crap about China controlling the South China sea. They don't even know where that is. Come to think of it, neither does Trump....

Point about his base taken. But I wouldn't be surprised to see the South China Sea dispute rear its head soon, trade deal or not. It is a hot button issue, and after losing his gamble on the wall/gov shut down, a possible flip flop on Syria, loss of the house to the Dems and the Mueller report edging closer and on and on and on, he'll seek a new, serious deflection soon. Trump is full of surprises and impulsive decisions.

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8 minutes ago, neeray said:

Point about his base taken. But I wouldn't be surprised to see the South China Sea dispute rear its head soon, trade deal or not. It is a hot button issue, and after losing his gamble on the wall/gov shut down, a possible flip flop on Syria, loss of the house to the Dems and the Mueller report edging closer and on and on and on, he'll seek a new, serious deflection soon. Trump is full of surprises and impulsive decisions.

I agree wholeheartedly about the his well-documented deflection tactics. However, the S. China sea issue is perhaps more important to China than the trade issue, and if he confronts them on this, it blows the trade war up even more, and the stock market takes a dive. Trump doesn't care about any of this, only that his base perceives the economy is running better under his leadership. So, I say no way he confronts China on this. Again, why do it? He only cares about his base, and 90% of his base has never even ordered Chinese take-out.

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14 minutes ago, stevenl said:

I'm betting more than 10 lies during that TV address. Any takers?

It's pretty amazing that prior to this Presidential address, the primary concern of the major networks broadcasting this is how to deal with the mountain of lies that Trump is going to dish out.  The credibility of this US President is long gone....

 

[When it comes to the border and the wall, his willful estrangement from reality is so profound that network executives and newspaper editors spent part of Tuesday in strategy sessions about how to respond to his inevitable barrage of falsehoods. Should there be a crawl of words on the bottom of the television screen that correct him in real time? Could fact checkers work speedily enough to post rebuttals online within minutes of his misrepresentations, before they took root? This is where we find ourselves.]

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-wall-is-a-symbol-of-donald-trump’s-neediness/ar-BBRZgaS?ocid=wispr

 

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1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

The overwhelming majority of the American people support building the Wall so Trump will be able to keep another campaign promise. 

That's so totally wrong. The overwhelming majority of Trump's BASE support the wall, but, overall, Americans oppose building a wall by a 10- to 20-percent margin.

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7 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

It's pretty amazing that prior to this Presidential address, the primary concern of the major networks broadcasting this is how to deal with the mountain of lies that Trump is going to dish out.  The credibility of this US President is long gone....

 

[When it comes to the border and the wall, his willful estrangement from reality is so profound that network executives and newspaper editors spent part of Tuesday in strategy sessions about how to respond to his inevitable barrage of falsehoods. Should there be a crawl of words on the bottom of the television screen that correct him in real time? Could fact checkers work speedily enough to post rebuttals online within minutes of his misrepresentations, before they took root? This is where we find ourselves.]

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-wall-is-a-symbol-of-donald-trump’s-neediness/ar-BBRZgaS?ocid=wispr

 

Yes, an incredible alternate reality we live in where the leader of the greatest power on earth has no credibility.

 

However, remember that for his base, any facts obtained by teams of highly trained people using methods involving analytical thought, scientific method, or similar methodologies is nothing more than fake news compared with Trump's oral pronouncements because he knows more about drones and other stuff than anyone on earth, and based on him being the smartest person on earth.

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In 2014 Obama wanted to give speech about immigration on prime time major networks. They rejected him saying speech would be "too political". Will show Trump because afraid of his tantrums, knew Obama wasn't a man child. How times have changed...

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1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

The overwhelming majority of the American people support building the Wall so Trump will be able to keep another campaign promise. 

You are a funny, funny man. Not necessarily in a humorous way......

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This is dictator 101 stuff.

 

Destroy the confidence of the people in existing systems. Create a crisis. Bypass said systems with executive power.

 

Funny how his supporters are usually strict constitutionalists and all for minimal government, until it doesn’t suit them...

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There is little support for the wall, outside of the sycophantic administration, the weak GOP senators, and his base of devotees. The majority of Americans oppose the wall. The wall is never going to be built. He is kicking a dead horse, as only a lame duck would do. It is his last hurrah. Once the wall gets pushed down the road, his base will begin to erode, this combined with the completely unnecessary and totally narcissistic "Trump wall shutdown". 800,000 people are alot of people not getting a paycheck. The ones I have heard interviewed want nothing to do with the wall, and do not support this nonsense, from the deflector. 

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53 minutes ago, neeray said:

ThaiVisa now goes quiet for a bit. I for one am about to move from computer to television. The moment has arrived. Popcorn and a beer ready.

You are a braver man than I. I'll wait for the highlight/lowlight reel.

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Just now, spidermike007 said:

There is little support for the wall, outside of the sycophantic administration, the weak GOP senators, and his base of devotees. The majority of Americans oppose the wall. The wall is never going to be built. He is kicking a dead horse, as only a lame duck would do. It is his last hurrah. Once the wall gets pushed down the road, his base will begin to erode, this combined with the completely unnecessary and totally narcissistic "Trump wall shutdown". 800,000 people are alot of people not getting a paycheck. The ones I have heard interviewed want nothing to do with the wall, and do not support this nonsense, from the deflector. 

Remember a part of this whole mess is his need for attention.   All the attention has been focused on Congress, the new members and he has largely been left out of the news cycle.   He needs attention.   This was his chance.

 

The speech itself was so uninspiring.   I actually got up and started doing something else.   Uninspiring and boring.   He does inflammatory well, but that's about it.

 

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