Rand Paul becomes the fourth Republican senator to oppose Trump's national emergency

Rand Paul.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

And then there was a fourth.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said during a speech at the Southern Kentucky Lincoln Day Dinner in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on Saturday that he would vote to reject President Trump's national emergency declaration, The Bowling Green Daily News reported.

Paul became the fourth Republican senator to come out against Trump's declaration, which was put into place to secure funding for the construction of a border wall. Paul joins Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Thom Thillis (N.C.) in allying with Senate Democrats for the upcoming vote. The four of them are enough to secure a bipartisan majority, though other Republicans remain undecided on whether or not to support the president.

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"I can't vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn't been appropriated by Congress," Paul said during the speech. "We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn't authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it's a dangerous thing."

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.