Stephen Colbert puts Trump's big emergency declaration Senate rebuke in perspective

"Thank you for joining us on Day 28 of Donald Trump's national emergency," Stephen Colbert said on Thursday's Late Show. "Today, Senate Republicans rolled up a magazine and spanked Trump right in the old Oval Office." Before the vote on whether to thwart Trump's emergency declaration, several Republicans said they would vote to spike it. "Trump pulled out all the stops to change their minds," tweeting threats to keep Republicans in line, and "yesterday, the White House tweeted this scare video," Colbert said. He was so impressed he tried the same "scare" technique on kids playing soccer, to similar effect.

It didn't matter. "This afternoon, the Senate rejected Trump border emergency declaration 59 to 41," Colbert said. "He lost. I mean, the last time Trump lost a vote that badly, he was elected president. But Trump should be proud of one thing — he made history here. Because Congress has now voted to block a presidential emergency declaration for the first time. ... Trump had long promised to veto this bill, and sure enough, just minutes after the results came in, he tweeted 'VETO!' If Trump carries out this tweet, it will be the first veto of his presidency — though not the first time he didn't take 'no' for an answer."

"Under the law, the president can declare an emergency, then Congress can say 'It's not really an emergency,' and the president can veto that," Colbert explained. "It's a precedent established in the landmark case Nuh Uh v. Yeah Huh." He explained the constitutional stakes with a little help from that School House Rocks bill. Watch below. Peter Weber

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up