Democrat Congressman Adam Smith, the chairman of the House Armed Service Committee, has explained that President Donald Trump does in fact have the authority to use the US military to build a border wall.

Appearing on on ABC’s “This Week,” Smith explained to host George Stephanopoulos that the president can declare an emergency and have a wall built to protect the nation’s borders.

“Does President Trump have the ability, have the authority to declare a national emergency and have the military build his wall?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Well, unfortunately, the short answer is yes. There is a provision in the law that says the president can declare an emergency. It’s been done a number of times, but primarily  it’s been done to build facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq and in this case I think the president would be wide-open to a court challenge saying, ‘Where’s the emergency?'” Smith responded.

“All border security experts that I talk to  say where a wall makes sense has already been built,” Smith continued on to say. “We should have a conversation about border security, but first we should reopen the government and start paying our border patrol agents and the other 800,000 federal employees who are furloughed.”

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