Trump Issues First Veto
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We ran the numbers: There are 825 news articles covering this topic. 40% (334) are left leaning, 41% (340) center, 18% (151) right leaning.
President Trump exercised his veto power for the first time on March 15, 2019. In February, Trump declared a national state of emergency in order to fund a wall along the U.S. southern border. Last week, a dozen Republican senators and every Democratic senator voted to block the president’s action by rescinding the state of emergency. The resolution passed by a 59-to-41 vote. It is extremely unlikely Congress will have sufficient votes to override Trump’s veto (a two-thirds majority is required in both the House and the Senate). This means the president’s declaration would stay in effect.
Most stories led with some version of the news peg: President Trump vetoes congressional resolution. Many included video of Trump’s press conference.
Left-leaning articles were more likely to reference past comments Trump has made on immigration and past political pushback he has received on the topic. Left-leaning articles were also more likely to include statements from politicians who opposed Trump’s national state of emergency, often featuring Republican congressmen.
Right-leaning articles were more likely to run quotations from Trump’s press conference, in which he said of the Senate vote, “Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution and I have the duty to veto it” and “I didn’t need the votes. We all knew it’s going to be a veto, and there’s not going to be an override.” Right-leaning articles were also more likely to reference that Trump surrounded himself with “angel moms”—women whose children have been murdered by illegal aliens—at the press conference.
Far more left-leaning outlets covered this story than did right-leaning outlets.