This is the Daily Signal Podcast for Friday, January 11th. I'm Kate Trinko.

And I'm Daniel Davis.

Well, the partial shutdown continues as President Trump goes to the border.

The shutdown is issue number one in Washington and this week we hosted a forum with several

top House Conservatives to discuss the issue. They discuss the wall, border

security, and prospects for reopening the government. We'll bring you that

conversation in just a bit. But first we'll cover some of the top headlines. Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, President Trump again suggested he might declare a

national emergency if he can't get a deal for the wall.

I have the absolute right to declare a national emergency. The lawyers have so advised me. I'm not prepared to do that

yet, but if I have to I will. I have no doubt about it. I will. I have the absolute right

to declare this was passed by Congress so when you say

was it passed by Congress it was other presidents have used it some fairly often I have the absolute right to declare a national emergency I

haven't done it yet I may do it if this doesn't work out probably I will do it I

would almost say definitely.

The Heritage Foundation's John Malcolm, a legal expert and an occasional guest of this

podcast, weighed in on how Trump would have to proceed if he did this in a Fox News interview.

So the first thing the president would have to do is to declare a national emergency

under the National Emergencies Act.

He would then have to tell Congress why this is a national emergency and define the scope

of that emergency and then he'd have to tell congress what other statutory authority he is relying

upon in order to spend appropriated but unobligated funds to build a wall. You've just cited a couple of

statutes, there are 130 some odd statutes in the federal code that empower a president

...