The Morning Briefing: Harpy Acosta Helps Sell Trump's Wall and Much, Much More

Good Friday morning.

Here is what’s on the president’s agenda today:

The president hosts a roundtable discussion on border security and safe communities with State, local, and community leaders

I want to plug my friend Derek Hunter’s podcast, The Daily Daily Caller Podcast. I listen to it almost every day and I encourage you to listen too.

Jim Acosta’s owngoal

Yesterday, President Trump took a trip to McAllen, Texas, to check out the NOTACRISIS U.S./Mexico border. Whenever the president travels, so too does the media circus. Jim Acosta, the president’s own personal media harpy, shared some thoughts about the existing border wall with Twitter.

https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1083411819354558467/

Well, Jim, there’s a wall there. Q.E.D. The point was not lost on Don Jr.

Of course you don’t Jim. That’s because walls work. Thanks for your help proving @realDonaldTrump’s point and simultaneously creating one of the best self-own videos ever!!! https://t.co/QVXsJTwFh8

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 10, 2019

But the best troll of Acosta goes to the president.

Dear Diary… https://t.co/NAuMaQW6fl

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2019

‘We Need To Finish The Job’ — Border Patrol Sector Chief Explains Firsthand Why A Border Barrier Is Desperately Needed

Tucker Mocks ‘Renaissance Poet’ Jim Acosta For Border Wall Video

Dems ready to challenge Trump’s national emergency

The Democrats have made it clear that they will not negotiate with Trump over the wall so it is likely that Trump will declare a national emergency to build the wall. Now the Democrats are getting ready to challenge that authority, which was used by Obama without issue. Now do I like expanding executive power? No I don’t, but we all need to play by the same rules. We can’t have the Democrats doing anything and everything to “fundamentally transform” America while we sit back and insist we are prevented by rules from fighting back. Either everybody follows the rules or nobody follows the rules. And only one side has been following the rules for quite awhile.

But Democrats are considering their options — from issuing a legal challenge to grilling administration officials at hearings for executive overreach. Many Democrats predict their chamber would quickly pass a resolution instructing the House counsel to sue the administration for ignoring the appropriations clause in the Constitution. Congress, after all, has the power of the purse. And Democrats would likely have standing to challenge the administration for usurping their authority for what they view as a phony emergency.

“We’ll challenge him in committee hearings. We’ll challenge him in the courts. And we’ll just continue to challenge him and push back because that’s not the way this should be handled,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.).

A lawsuit from Congress is not without precedent.

Should Democrats file a lawsuit, they’ll have multiple templates to choose from. House Republicans sued the Obama administration in 2014 for unilaterally directing the Health and Human Services Department to fund Obamacare subsidies for low-income people, which the GOP argued was done without Congress’ permission.

Obama’s signature health care law did not include an explicit appropriation to reimburse insurance companies for the cost of lower premiums stipulated in the bill. And when Republicans took the House in 2010 and refused to appropriate money for the proposal, Obama decided to do it on his own.

Get ready. The Left will fight Trump on this just like they have fought Trump on everything he has tried to do as president.

Trump promises to pay federal workers after shutdown

DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: ‘Ridiculous’ to pretend’ that there is not a crisis on the southern border

White House directs Army Corps of Engineers to look at ways to fund border security

Due to TSA absences, Miami airport will temporarily close one terminal early for 3 days

Border official shows Trump tunnels under border wall

Your daily WTF:

Man accused of using alligator in kidnapping pleads guilty

Funeral Home Owner Accused of Keeping Three Corpses in a Shed for Decades

Historical picture of the day:

The valiant crew of the record breaking Army monoplane, Question Mark, with their feet on the ground for the first time in seven days on Jan. 11, 1929. Location unknown. Left to right: Sgt. Roy Hooe, Lt. Elwood Quesada, Lt. Harry Halverson, Capt. Ira Eaker, and Major Carl Spatz. (AP Photo/CEK)

Other morsels:

Ocasio-Cortez passed over for influential House committee

Why do people hate the media? This is why. Fox affiliate fires employee for doctoring video of Trump Oval Office address

Ocasio-Cortez Campaign Slapped With A Fine For Not Providing Proper Workers’ Comp

Well hello there! Fusion GPS-Linked Group Worked With Tech Company Tied To Russian ‘False Flag’ Operation

What a sad sack. ‘So, I’m here at the dentist’: Beto O’Rourke livestreams teeth-cleaning

Wait, I thought the Dems were cool with unsatisfying testimony before House committees. ‘The secretary barely testified’: Pelosi rebukes Mnuchin after Russia sanctions meeting

Steve King under fire after embrace of white supremacy

Sweet, nourishing gang members 20 dead in grisly Mexican gang battle near US border

Reuters journalists lose appeal of 7-year sentence in Myanmar

AW! ‘Aunt Bee’ from ‘Andy Griffith Show’ left $100G trust fund for police in small NC town, report says

Mysterious radio waves detected from space