During the Democratic Debate, Trump Vetoed a Measure to Block Funding for Border Wall

Meanwhile, there wasn’t a single question on immigration.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Tuesday evening, as 12 Democratic presidential hopefuls debated policy ideas about healthcare, gun control measures, and protecting reproductive rights, President Donald Trump once again vetoed legislation that would end his declaration of a national emergency at the southern border and prevent him from building his wall. 

It’s the sixth veto of Trump’s presidency and comes seven months after he first vetoed a similar measure in March, which had been passed by the Senate in a 59-41 vote, with twelve Republicans siding with Democrats. This bill would have halted the president’s emergency declaration to funnel $3.6 billion in Defense Department funding to build more sections of his wall at the Southern border; the bill the president vetoed last night was nearly identical. “In short, the situation on our southern border remains a national emergency, and our Armed Forces are still needed to help confront it,” Trump wrote in his message to the Senate Tuesday just after 9 p.m., an hour into the Democratic debate. Congress could override the President’s veto with a two-thirds majority of votes in the Senate, but that is unlikely to occur, the New York Times reports.

Building a wall at the southern border has long been a drawn-out battle at the center of Trump’s aggressive and contentious crackdown on immigration reform. And Democrats have fought tooth and nail throughout Trump’s presidency to block his efforts to succeed in that plan, as well as to put a halt to his detention of refugees and his controversial family separation policy.

But during Tuesday’s three-hour Democratic presidential debate, there wasn’t a single question about immigration. Even some of the candidates later expressed disappointment with how this subject, as well as ones on climate change and LBGTQ, were not part of the discussion.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate