Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade has warned that President Donald Trump following through on his threat to declare a national emergency in order to bypass Congress to get his wall funding "would be a disaster."
"It would just be a disaster in the big picture and just show us being inept and unable to govern around the world, and it would just set a terrible precedent," Kilmeade said of the potential move.
Related: What is a national emergency and can Donald Trump declare one at the border?
Kilmeade's warning comes as negotiations to end the ongoing partial government shutdown, which has reached its 20th day, continue, with no sign of resolution.
Trump triggered the shutdown on December 22 after Democrats refused to pass a spending bill that would have given the U.S. leader the $5.6 billion he demanded in funding to build his long-promised border wall. As a result of the shutdown, around 800,000 federal workers are currently going without pay.
Over the weekend, the president threatened to declare a national emergency in order to bypass Congress and possibly use military funding to get his wall built.
Kilmeade's warning was not the first he has issued, however, with the Fox & Friends host asserting on Wednesday that declaring a national emergency over immigration would be a "bad" move.
After Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy raised the issue on Wednesday morning, saying that the "most likely thing [Trump is] probably going to declare, it's going to be a national emergency," Kilmeade responded: "That would be, uh, bad."
After Doocy questioned why, Kilmeade then explained that any emergency declaration would be likely to be met with a challenge.
"Next thing you know, there'll be a Democrat in office, and they'll say, 'Well, climate change is a national crisis, and here are the stats that show that temperatures are rising, and fish are dying," Kilmeade said. "So I just think that will be another legal fight, and then nothing gets done as the courts mull this through."
On Wednesday, Trump suggested that he was still weighing the possibility of calling a national emergency, saying that if a deal is not struck, "I may go that route."
"I have the absolute right to do national emergency if I want," Trump said.
After being asked how he would decide whether to make the declaration, the president said, "My threshold will be if I can't make a deal with people that are unreasonable."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Chantal Da Silva is Chief Correspondent at Newsweek, with a focus on immigration and human rights. She is a Canadian-British journalist whose work ... Read more
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