Wicker was one of 12 Republican senators that voted with Democrats in the bipartisan vote. He said he supported the president’s plan for a wall at the southern border. He said that he was “concerned by the precedent an emergency declaration sets.” Yesterday and today, he spoke with Wicker in cordial conversation. I told him that while I support his plan to build wall along our southern border, an emergency declaration is the wrong approach. Wicker stated that the president has nearly $6 billion in his possession that could be used to build border wall. The president’s declaration was supported by 41 other senators, all Republicans including the junior Senator Cindy Hyde Smith. She expressed reservations about border funding but said that it was impossible to wait to address the “crisis.” Hyde-Smith stated in a Thursday statement that while an emergency declaration might not be the best course of action, an objective assessment of illegal drug trafficking and surging illegal border crossings shows we face a crisis that will only get worse before it gets better. Trump’s declaration that would have provided $3.6 billion in federal funding for border security at the U.S.-Mexico border was defeated by a final vote of 59 to 41. Already, the House, which is controlled by a Democratic majority voted against Trump’s declaration. However, neither the House nor the Senate voted decisively enough to block the possibility of a presidential vote. Trump indicated this in a tweet, “VETO!” It would be Trump’s first veto. Wicker was one of Trump’s most reliable senatorial votes during his first two years as president. His votes were more aligned than 96 per cent of the time. Thursday’s vote is the second time that Wicker has voted against Trump’s agenda in 2019. After Trump’s call for a military pull down in Syria/Afghanistan, Wicker joined a bipartisan group consisting of Republicans and Democrats to oppose U.S. troop withdrawal from these areas. Wicker, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and did not mention Trump in his press release on Thursday. Instead, Wicker stated that his support for U.S. military stability was a simple support for U.S. military strength in unstable areas. Wicker stated in a statement that the proposal’s strong bipartisan support sends a signal to America’s allies about its unity in dealing with security threats in the Middle East. The creation of a wall at the U.S. Mexico Border was one of Trump’s most important campaign promises. In fact, the president used his tweets to express opposition to his emergency declaration. “I regret that we weren’t able to find an alternative solution that would have prevented a challenge of the balance power as defined in the Constitution. Our democracy has been preserved by the system of checks, balances and regulations established by our Founding Fathers. Wicker stated in his statement that it was essential to preserve this balance, even when it is frustrating and inconvenient.”