A Republican Senator from North Carolina Thom Tillis said that although he supports the United States President Donald Trump's vision on border security he would vote against the national emergency declaration because as a member of the Senate he has "grave concerns when our institution looks the other way at the expense of weakening Congress’s power."
"As a US senator, I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass Congress. As a conservative, I cannot endorse a precedent that I know future left-wing presidents will exploit to advance radical policies that will erode economic and individual freedoms," he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. Tillis added that "these are the reasons I would vote in favor of the resolution disapproving of the president’s national emergency declaration, if and when it comes before the Senate."
Tillis' decision could help tip the scale in favor of Democrats and their move to block Trump's emergency declaration in the Senate. If that resolution passes the Senate, it will go to Trump who already announced he will use his first veto. For the resolution to pass the Senate, all 47 Democrats must vote for it and flip four Republican senators. Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are already considered to vote in favor.
