The clock is ticking on lawmakers to work out a deal on the wall before the February 15h deadline comes up and the President follows up on his promise to declare a national emergency.
And it is likely that the President will wait until the 15th before he declares that emergency. Rice University political scientist Mark Jones explains why the President hasn't done so already.
“The sole purpose of the Emergency Powers Act is to provide the President to be nimble and rapid; to let him do something Congress can’t do because they don’t have time,” Jones said.
Jones says he's unsure if this fits the criteria of the Emergency Powers Act. But he knows what will happen if the President decides to invoke those powers.
“It’ll get blocked, but it would allow him to save face with his base,” Jones said, adding that it would allow the President to tell his supporters he did everything in his power to try and deliver on the promise he started making to America in June of 2015.
But will that satisfy the Trump base? Jenny Beth Martin with the Tea Party Patriots says it’s about more than the wall.
“That would go a long way, as long as there is not amnesty,” Martin told KTRH News.