President Trump got an assist from an Angel Mom on Friday after CNN’s Jim Acosta asked if he was “concocting” a national emergency on the U.S. southern border.
The White House correspondent challenged the president in the Rose Garden on the legitimacy of his latest move to secure the border with Mexico, but it was a mother whose life was turned upside down by crime who responded.
“What do you say to your critics who say that you are creating a national emergency, that you’re concocting a national emergency here in order to get your wall?” Mr. Acosta asked the president.
“I’ll ask the angel moms,” Mr. Trump replied, Fox News reported. “What do you think, do you think I’m creating something? Ask these incredible women who lost their daughters and their sons.”
One of the women scolded the CNN reporter while holding up a photo of a lost loved one.
“This is real,” she said while staring down the reporter.
“We’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border,” Mr. Trump said. “One way or the other, we have to do it.”
Mr. Trump plans to use the emergency declaration to divert $6.5 billion in unspent federal funds to construct border walls.
The money will augment $1.4 billion allocated for border security in the spending bill he also signed Friday.
President Trump Speaks on the National Security & Humanitarian Crisis on Our Southern Border https://t.co/FqdfFORbv5
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 15, 2019
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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