“It’s going to be a real test for my GOP colleagues in Congress and their devotion to this institution… It will not be a separation of powers any more, just a separation of parties. So this is going to be a moment of truth for my GOP colleagues.”

— Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), in a CNN interview, on whether Republicans will oppose President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to bypass Congress to build a border wall.

“President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the U.S. southern border comes after two years of political neglect of his signature campaign promise, lost amid competing priorities and divisions within his administration,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Timothy O’Brien: “Trump and his team neither prioritized building a border wall nor assigned someone to be the White House’s point person on the project for most of the president’s first two years in office… It was only after Trump recognized in January that he was being consumed by a government shutdown he set in motion — and that he had been politically emasculated by a woman to his left (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) and to his right (pundit and firebrand Ann Coulter) — that he fully embraced a border wall as his last stand.”

“I want to do it faster. I could do the wall over a longer period of time, I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it faster. I want to get it done faster, that’s all.”

— President Trump, quoted by ABC News, in declaring a “national emergency” for building a border wall.

“President Trump formally declared a national emergency at the border on Friday to access billions of dollars to build a border wall that Congress refused to give him, transforming a highly charged policy dispute into a fundamental confrontation over separation of powers,” the New York Times reports.

“The president’s decision, previewed on Thursday, triggered instant condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans, who called it an abuse of power. House Democrats plan to introduce legislation to block the president’s move, which could pass both houses if it wins the votes of the half-dozen Republican senators who have criticized the declaration. That would put the president in the position of issuing the first veto of his presidency.”

“If President Trump declares a national emergency to construct a wall on the southern border, only one thing is certain: There will be lawsuits. Lots of them. From California to Congress, the litigants will multiply,” the Washington Post reports.

“They will file suit in numerous jurisdictions — certainly within the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on the West Coast, in U.S. District Court in Washington and maybe even in New York. That’s been the pattern in the hundreds of lawsuits, many of them successful, brought against the Trump administration, the idea being that some judge somewhere will block the wall.”

New York Times: “As a matter of legal reality, the proposal is likely to be bogged down in a court challenge, leaving any actual construction work based on emergency powers spending an uncertain and, at best, distant prospect.”

“I think it would be a profound mistake for the President of the United States to overturn American immigration law with the stroke of a pen.”

— Vice President Mike Pence, in a 2014 video, about President Barack Obama,

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D) said he would “absolutely” take down the border wall in El Paso, Texas, arguing that the structure has not made the city demonstrably safer, The Hill reports.

President Trump “plans to use unilateral authority to spend more than $8 billion to construct physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border… a maneuver that risks provoking a lengthy legal battle over presidential powers,” Bloomberg reports.

“The president will invoke an emergency declaration to redirect $3.5 billion Congress approved for the Defense Department’s military construction budget, said another person familiar with the deliberations. Trump also will use his ordinary executive authority to reprogram $2.5 billion from the Defense Department’s drug interdiction efforts and $600 million from the Treasury department’s drug forfeiture program, said the person, who asked not to be identified to discuss plans ahead of announcement.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Trump is ready to sign compromise spending legislation that would avert another government shutdown and will declare a national emergency to get additional funds for a border wall, Bloomberg reports.

Washington Post: “McConnell also said he’d told the president he would support the emergency declaration, which would allow the president to circumvent Congress and use the military to build his wall. McConnell has voiced opposition for weeks to the idea of Trump declaring a national emergency.”

New York Times: “That raised the prospect of a constitutional clash with lawmakers over who controls the federal purse.”

New York Times: “As he inched closer to reluctantly accepting a bipartisan spending compromise without the money he demanded for his border wall, Mr. Trump offered no acknowledgment on Wednesday that his pressure tactics had failed even as aides sought to minimize the damage by tamping down criticism on the right.”

“One call was made to Lou Dobbs, a favorite of Mr. Trump’s whose Fox Business Network show he often tries to catch live. Another was placed to Sean Hannity, the Fox host who regularly talks with the president. The message: Mr. Trump deserved support because he still forced concessions that he would never have gotten without a five-week partial government shutdown.”

“Even so, it was arguably the most punishing defeat Mr. Trump has experienced as president, and it left the White House scrounging for other ways to pay for a wall on the southwestern border and rethinking its approach to a Congress now partly controlled by Democrats. Mr. Trump’s inability to reach a satisfying deal despite the negotiating experience he regularly touted on the campaign trail suggested that any aspirations of collaboration across party lines may be even more elusive than he had imagined.”

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) is being deployed to the southern border with an Air Force National Guard Unit, CNN reports.

“Prior to Kinzinger’s election to Congress, he served in the Air Force and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in November 2003. He served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.”

“Whether members of Congress can serve in active duty has been a source of controversy in the past.”

“Top Republican leaders in the House said Wednesday morning that they’re not yet ready to endorse a border security funding deal reached by negotiators that would prevent another partial government shutdown,” NBC News reports.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) “said he would support the agreement if the final legislative text — which has not yet been released — reflects the overarching framework.”

Playbook: “The president told reporters this afternoon that he doesn’t want another shutdown but he would review the deal for ‘land mines.'”

“Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her House Democratic troops to fall in line behind a border-security agreement that deprived President Trump of a win on his long-promised wall but gave more money for border fencing and detention beds than the left wing of her party wanted,” the New York Times reports.

Said Pelosi: “As with all compromises, I say to people, support the bill for what is in it. Don’t judge it for what is not in it. We have other days to pass other legislation.”