President Trump threatens to adjourn Congress

President Donald Trump stunned journalists at the coronavirus task force briefing on Wednesday when he threatened to adjourn the sessions of Congress.

The president was angrily denouncing Democrats for stalling on his judicial appointments when he said that he could force Congress out of session and appoint judges during the congressional recess.

"The Senate should either fulfill its duty and vote on my nominees or it should formally adjourn so that I can make recess appointments," the president said.

"We have a tremendous number of people that have to come into government. And now more so than ever before because of the virus and the problem," he added.

Congress has been conducting pro forma actions in order to prevent recess appointments by the president. Trump decried these actions as a "scam."

"The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony pro forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people can not afford during this crisis," Trump continued. "It is a scam, what they do. It's a scam. And everybody knows it, and it's been that way for a long time."

The president does have the power, enumerated in the Constitution in Article II, Section 3, to adjourn both houses of Congress during "extraordinary occasions."

However, critics of the president noted that this power has not been used by a president of the United States in its entire history.

Here's video of the threat to Congress from Trump:

President Trump threatens to 'adjourn both chambers of Congress'www.youtube.com