Why Won’t President Obama enforce Federal Laws on Marijuana, Immigration, Marriage, And Payments To Terrorists?

Susan Walsh/AP
Susan Walsh/AP

During the White House Press briefing today, Fox News reporter James Rosen asked Press Secretary Josh Earnest why President Obama declined to enforce federal laws on marijuana, immigration and deportation, and private payments of money to terrorist organizations.

“Do you understand how a dispassionate observer could conclude that this president who is the chief enforcer of our laws, the chief executive of our laws, charged with executing those laws, takes a somewhat cavalier view of the law, and sometimes decides it should be enforced and sometimes not?” asked Rosen.

Earnest replied that he would “vigorously disagree” with Rosen’s characterization of Obama’s administration, insisting that Attorney General Loretta Lynch in charge of prosecutorial discretion at the Justice Department.

“I think the pattern is the prosecutorial decisions are made on a daily basis over at the Department of Justice absent any political interference,” he said.

White House reporter Jon Karl also referred to the decision by the administration not to defend that law as it was written in regards to the Defense of Marriage act.

“It is the responsibility of the Attorney General, the top law enforcement officer of the United States, to make prosecutorial decisions and Loretta Lynch is eminently qualified to do exactly that,” Earnest replied.

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