Even ex-GOP bigs say it’s not a crisis

President Trump played politics when he declared an emergency earlier this month to secure funding for a Mexican border wall and Congress should promptly block the unconstitutional order, several dozen former Republican lawmakers and national security officials said Monday.

In a couple of highly unusual letters, 26 former GOP lawmakers and 58 former U.S. security officials respectively urged Republicans in Congress to join their Democratic colleagues in standing up to Trump’s legally questionable maneuver.

“It has always been a Republican fundamental principle that no matter how strong our policy preferences, no matter how deep our loyalties to Presidents or party leaders, in order to remain a constitutional republic we must act within the borders of the Constitution,” said the former lawmakers, among whom were veteran Sens. John Danforth of Missouri, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Richard Lugar of Indiana.

“Our oath is to put the country and its Constitution above everything, including party politics or loyalty to a President.”

Meanwhile, the bipartisan coalition of ex-security officials — which included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, CIA Director Leon Panetta and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano — made an appeal to the facts of the matter.

“The President’s actions are at odds with the overwhelming evidence in the public record, including the administration’s own data and estimates,” the officials said, citing government statistics showing illegal crossings on the Mexican border are almost at a 40-year low; that the vast majority of drugs smuggled into the U.S. come through legal ports of entry where a wall would be of no help and that immigrants actually commit crimes at a far lower rate than American citizens.

“Under no plausible assessment of the evidence,” the officials continued, “is there a national emergency today that entitles the President to tap into funds appropriated for other purposes to build a wall.”