Donald Trump confirmed on Friday morning that he would be declaring a national emergency to secure funding to build a Southern border wall; his actions probably didn’t surprise Stacey Abrams, who told Seth Meyers on Thursday night what the plan of action should be if Trump declared a state of emergency.
During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Abrams, who delivered the 2019 Democratic response to Trump’s State of the Union Address, shared what she thought would be the best solution if Trump declared a national emergency.
“More than anything, it’s not real,” she said. “There is no emergency. It is not national. It is in his head.”
Later on in the segment she continued:
“What he’s looking forward to and what I think we will give him is that we will have a histrionic fit about this and then we’ll realize it’s just like everything else he hasn’t done. Why are we reacting to yet another untruth?”
Meyers then asked if the best way to address this would be to ignore Trump, which Abrams corrected swiftly and with a little humor.
“Oh, we should sue him, of course,” she said. “Absolutely. Because left unchecked, he will declare a national emergency because tanning beds are disappearing from the shelves.”
She then addressed the issue more seriously.
“I do think there is necessary response, but it doesn’t have to be public and it doesn’t have to be constant,” she said. “We validate his behavior when we treat it as serious. What we should treat it as is fraudulent and fraught with egotism.”
Watch the full clip below.
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com