Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said the Trump administration is putting the nation “on the edge of a constitutional crisis” following a series of sweeping executive orders and funding freezes targeting federal agencies.
“We’ve got our toes right on the edge of a constitutional crisis here. But here’s the thing, it may be the case that Donald Trump is so full of confidence that he thinks he can wave his wand and whatever he wants to happen will happen,” Warren said during a Monday appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
“And in many cases, he will be right. For example, the Republicans in the Senate just go ahead and confirm people for jobs that they know they are not qualified for, so they will kowtow to him,” she added.
Warren has condemned many efforts directed by President Trump including attempts to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency she helped create. The Massachusetts senator said she is depending on judges to prevent the proposed cuts and enforce the rule of law during a time when the boundaries of executive power are being tested.
“My view right now is the courts are where we are hanging on to our constitutional structure,” Warren told host Rachel Maddow. “They still have the power to hold everybody else in this country in contempt if they do not follow lawfully issued court orders.”
As Trump has initiated efforts to gut the CFPB from the Oval Office, Republicans in Congress have been quick to follow suit.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a measure to reduce the amount of funding the agency receives from the Federal Reserve to zero, which would effectively shut it down.
Warren has argued that the agency can only be shut down by Congress. The Wall Street Journal reported that Cruz hopes to advance the bill under a special procedure that bypasses the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, after Republicans failed to shutter the agency last time they had a triumvirate under Trump.
“Congress created this agency. There were laws that were passed, right?” Warren told Maddow. “They passed a bill in the House, passed a bill in the Senate, did a conference, got the thing through. Was signed into law by the President of the United States, and only Congress, not Donald Trump, not Elon Musk, not some 22-year-old programmer, only Congress can shut this agency down.”
“And particularly, Elon Musk would like nobody to notice that he just wants to get rid of them before he launches his new financial product,” she later added.
