Oh, so NOW Sen. Richard Blumenthal thinks 'national emergencies' are an abuse of power

Brett T. | 6:51 PM on January 08, 2019

A draft of President Trump’s border security speech has been floating around, and those who have seen it say it says nothing about declaring a “national emergency” at the border as a way of getting around Congress to get a wall built. Instead it’s said the president will call for a bipartisan solution.

As Twitchy reported earlier Tuesday, if President Trump did declare a national emergency at the border, it would be the 32nd active national emergency, the oldest of which was called by President Jimmy Carter.

It’s no secret that the National Emergencies Act needs to be reformed or scrapped, but suddenly Sen. Richard Blumenthal thinks that calling a national emergency is an “abuse of power.”

Blumenthal tells me it “may well be” time to reform the National Emergencies Act of 1976, under which Trump could declare a national emergency at the border.

Blumenthal says that if president does so, it would constitute an “abuse of power”

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 8, 2019

We don’t remember Blumenthal declaring an abuse of power the 13 times President Obama declared a national emergency, or the 17 times Bill Clinton did. But now, with Trump in the Oval Office, it’s an abuse of power that needs to be stopped.

If anyone was sincerely concerned with presidential abuse of power, they should have spoken up when President Pen and Phone was in office.