President Trump To Sign Border Security Compromise Bill And Declare A National Emergency; Amazon Scraps Plans For HQ2 In New York City
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: He's prepared to sign the bill. He will also be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time.</s>DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump just hours away from triggering a high-stakes showdown over his border wall.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The former acting director of the FBI claims President Trump called a North Korean missile launch a hoax. We can tell here, why.</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY: We got a call this morning saying we're taking our ball and going home.</s>BRIGGS: New York's mayor rips Amazon for pulling out of a $3 billion deal due to backlash from progressives.</s>ROMANS: Plus, the race to save a man swept away by floodwaters -- remarkable. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.</s>BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. So, Mexico was going to pay for the wall. And then, the USMCA trade deal was going to pay for the wall. Then, Congress was going to approve you, the taxpayers, paying for the wall. And now, a national emergency. Yes, we start on Friday with President Trump just hours away from signing a compromise border security bill to avoid a second government shutdown, but he's not surrendering. He will also declare a national emergency and announced he is using executive powers to cobble together $8 billion from a variety of funding sources to finance construction of his wall, a move that has the full backing of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.</s>MCCONNELL: I've just had an opportunity to speak with President Trump and he -- I would say to all my colleagues, he's indicated he's prepared to sign the bill. He will also be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time. And I've indicated to him that I'm going to prepare -- I'm going to support the national emergency declaration.</s>ROMANS: The president plans to use executive orders to collect $8 billion for wall funding. One point three seven five billion is already in the spending bill and he's going to sign that later this morning. Three and one-half billion would be diverted from military construction funds, $2.5 billion from Pentagon counter-narcotics funds, and $600 million from Treasury forfeiture funds.</s>BRIGGS: Many Senate Republicans appear to be stunned by the president's decision to use his emergency powers to try and build a wall. Some call it inappropriate, others say it's a slippery slope that may come back to haunt the party.</s>SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I continue to believe that this is not what the National Emergencies Act was intended to be used for. It was contemplated as a means for responding to a catastrophic event, like an attack on our country or a major natural disaster.</s>SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: What about if somebody else thinks that climate change is the national emergency and then, what will they do and how far will they go?</s>ROMANS: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Democrats will fight the president, possibly with legal action, over the declaration of a national emergency to get money for his border wall. Pelosi calls the move an end run around Congress that sets a dangerous precedent.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We will review our options. We'll be prepared to respond appropriately to it. I know the Republicans have some unease about, no matter what they say, because if the president can declare an emergency on something that he has created as an emergency -- an illusion that he wants to convey -- just think of what a president with different values can present to the American people. You want to talk about a national emergency? Let's talk about today, the one-year anniversary of another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in America. That's a national emergency. What don't you declare that emergency, Mr. President? I wish you would. But, a Democratic president can do that.</s>BRIGGS: Speaker Pelosi referencing the 1-year anniversary of the Parkland shooting. With President Trump poised to use executive powers to get funding for his border wall, it's important to note what he said back in 2014 when President Obama used executive authority to halt the deportation of undocumented parents.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now he has to use executive action and it's a very, very dangerous thing that should be overridden easily by the Supreme Court. So, we're looking now at a situation that should absolutely not pass muster in terms of constitutionality. But, it depends on what these justices do.</s>BRIGGS: During that same interview, Donald Trump expressed the opinion that President Obama could be impeached for taking executive action on immigration. Voters are not behind President Trump either when it comes to declaring a national emergency. A CNN poll from earlier this month found 66 percent oppose the idea.</s>ROMANS: All right, let's go live to Washington and bring in Nathan Gonzales. He's a CNN political analyst and editor and publisher of "Inside Elections". So nice to see you this Friday morning. So, we're talking about President Trump's double standard on immigration issues. But what about the Republican Party's double standard on immigration -- listen.</s>MCCONNELL: The action he's proposed would ignore the law, would reject the voice of the voters, and would impose new unfairness on law-abiding immigrants, all without solving the problem.</s>SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: We, the Senate, are waiting in our duty to stop this lawless administration and its unconstitutional amnesty.</s>ROMANS: Nathan, I can promise you our tape editors have more just like that. We could fill this entire segment --</s>BRIGGS: Only so much time.</s>ROMANS: -- with that. How -- talk to me a little bit about the hypocrisy of the party and why Mitch McConnell caved on this.</s>NATHAN GONZALES, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, INSIDE ELECTIONS: Hypocrisy -- it's their -- politicians are hypocritical? This is -- this is shabby.</s>BRIGGS: Nah.</s>GONZALES: I can -- I can guarantee you this right now. Put this in the -- put this in the -- hit record. In that two years or six years from now we're going to be having a conversation, probably with a Democratic president, using the national -- using a national --</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>GONZALES: -- emergency. And we're going to have all this tape from what Democrats are saying now. And it just goes in cycles. I mean, this is what happens. I think that, particularly on Capitol Hill and with parties again in power and have the presidency and their perspective changes when they're the ones making these sorts of decisions. And I think that that's what we're saying. I mean, it's absolutely -- the party that's not in the White House but on Capitol Hill criticizes the president for making these types of decisions.</s>ROMANS: I know.</s>BRIGGS: It's just like federal spending -- debts and deficits.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>BRIGGS: President Trump doesn't give a damn about the future of the party or the implications. He won't be president anymore when that bill is due. But the party -- Mitch McConnell -- that's interesting because "The Washington Post" writes this morning, "By his declaration, Mr. Trump will inaugurate a new imperial phase of his presidency. Mr. McConnell, who had previously warned against that, showed he has perfected a trick. Roll over and play dead." There are also numerous lawsuits that await. What type of challenges will block or attempt to block this national emergency declaration?</s>GONZALES: Yes. I mean, assuming the president does it -- which until that signature is on the paper and we're in the Rose Garden at 10:00 and it happens, we have to kind of wait and see. But once that happens, I think there is going to be a legal challenge. It's probably going to be tied for a little while. I don't know if the White House ends up getting what they -- getting what they want and being able to shift that money over or if it just allows the White House and the president more time to find a way to save face in this --</s>ROMANS: Right.</s>GONZALES: -- and say well, we're actually -- we're already rebuilding the wall. The president has said this before the State of the Union -- we're already -- we're already building the wall or we're refurbishing the wall and putting these things in place to kind of -- there's an exit strategy while it plays out in court.</s>ROMANS: It seems like there are going to be some risks in that trying to save face -- where they're trying to get the money. I mean, Pentagon counter-narcotics funds -- that sounds like it's something that's important for national security, you know? I mean, that's money going after drug dealers. Military construction funds. I mean, that's revamping military facilities. That might require a national emergency declaration, we know for sure. And then you have this. How does Nancy Pelosi move forward from here? If they do -- she could have a House resolution, right? The House could pass a resolution --</s>BRIGGS: Of disapproval.</s>ROMANS: -- against this. And then, Mitch McConnell has to bring it back to the Senate, and they're all on the record.</s>GONZALES: Yes. I mean, it's extremely difficult -- we learned this before the shutdown. It's extremely difficult to get all three of these pieces on the same page -- the White House, the Democratic House, and the Republican Senate. You know, one of them might be able to do something, but to get full agreement I just -- I'm skeptical that's going to happen. We saw -- we got -- we might get it with the funding shutdown -- or the government funding resolution that's happening today, but that's a rarity and really kind of a short-term -- a short-term thing.</s>BRIGGS: And long down the road you would certainly have a Democratic president declaring an emergency on gun violence and climate change, but we don't have time to get into that. Nathan, stick around. We want to ask you about these "Amazon Killers" --</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>GONZALES: Yes.</s>BRIGGS: -- as the New York "Daily News" calls them --</s>ROMANS: Don't move.</s>BRIGGS: -- in just a moment.</s>ROMANS: Let's look through those details here. Amazon backing out of that building of a HQ2, as it's called, in New York. Back in November, Amazon chose Queens and northern Virginia to split duty as its second headquarters. Each city was expected to have more than 25,000 workers over time. Great, right? No. There was really big backlash from politicians and the community, and Amazon pulled out -- scrubbed plans to build in New York. In a statement, Amazon said this. "A number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City." Now, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called out Amazon for being weak -- for walking away instead of talking about the community's concerns.</s>DE BLASIO: Instead of an actual dialogue to try and resolve those issues, we got a call this morning saying we're taking our ball and going home. I've never seen anything like it.</s>ROMANS: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrated the decision and she called it a victory for members of the community who hated this deal.</s>REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D), NEW YORK: We should not be giving away our infrastructure, our subway system, our schools, our teachers' salaries, our firefighters' budgets to a company that has not shown good faith to New Yorkers.</s>ROMANS: Amazon said it has no plans to reopen the HQ2 search. Instead, it's going to move forward with its office expansions in Virginia, as well as Nashville. So, Nathan Gonzales, come back and talk to us about this. This was about corporate welfare to one of the world's richest companies, right? That's how it was framed in New York. This idea that it was a public subsidy auction around the country and New York thinks it won that auction, but the progressives took it down.</s>GONZALES: Yes, I think it's remarkable. The first thing that I thought about as someone who covers congressional elections, is the impact that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez --</s>BRIGGS: Yes.</s>GONZALES: -- has had. I mean, she's been in office for about five weeks. And I know she wasn't the only one -- the only -- the only one opposed to this, but to have that impact, I think is pretty remarkable. And, you know, every tweet and everything she says, we're always on top of it. You know, this is fascinating. Once Amazon made this decision, you saw what Mayor de Blasio said. Also, Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He kind of focused some of his fire more on the politicians who were against it. I don't think he named names. But he wasn't excited as well. But I think it's another indication, I think, that the Democratic Party in this anti-corporate thread that's playing through, I think is just rising and just increasing. And I think it's going to be interesting to see that play out and be a division within the party in at least the next couple of years to come.</s>BRIGGS: And the economics of it. How does New York attract big business down the road? Number one in the country since 2011 in terms of people leaving a state. That may only get worse. This is a huge story. Nathan Gonzales, thanks for being here. Have a great weekend.</s>ROMANS: Nice to see you.</s>GONZALES: Thank you -- you, too.</s>BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, some high-stakes trade talks between the U.S. and China with a surprise visitor to the bargaining table. We'll take you there live, next.