Fox & Friends on Trump's national emergency for a wall: “31 of the emergency actions are still on the books since 1976. So, how bad could they be?”

Brian Kilmeade: “President Obama did it dozens of times”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Defending President Donald Trump's move to declare a national emergency to build a border wall, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade said that previous presidents have declared emergences and that “31 of the emergency actions are still on the books since 1976.”

In response to right-wing pundit making a similar point on Twitter, New York Times reporter Charlie Savage pointed out a key difference with Trump's declaration:

Withering words, but in the real world, their “emergency” declarations were about invoking statutes to sanction various bad actors on the intl stage; none were about reprograming funds to finance a disputed policy goal Congress had declined to fund. https://t.co/R0K4mlAeEs https://t.co/s9VA8JPHby

— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) February 15, 2019

From the February 15 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): It's been on the books since 1976. 58 times presidents with different values have been in the White House and 58 times -- in fact, 31 of the emergency actions are still on the books since 1976. So, how bad could they be? And we know we've had a diversity of opinions in people in the White House. President Obama did it dozens of times. President Trump did about dozen times. President Trump has already had three executive orders declaring a state of emergency.

Previously:

Trump is taking his Fox cabinet's advice and declaring a national emergency

Some conservatives admit Trump's emergency declaration will allow future action on climate change or gun violence

Sean Hannity: “Behind the scenes” sources say Trump and Senate Republicans reached a secret deal on national emergency