COLUMBIA, South Carolina – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says that he will and other senators should oppose President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder if that candidate supports the president’s planned executive amnesty or other executive overreaches as president.
“I think it’s even bigger and broader than that,” Paul said when asked if he’d back a plan put forward by Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to block the Holder replacement nominee if they support executive amnesty. “I think the attorney general should, whoever the nominee is, acknowledge that they will operate independent of politics, independent of the president and under the direction of the Constitution. The Constitution really doesn’t allow the president to legislate. It’s a host of issues-I wouldn’t limit it to just immigration. Whether it’s immigration, healthcare or war, those are congressional powers. But really with the whole separation of powers, he’s had a whole host of executive orders that appear to be legislating and appear to be illegal. So yeah I think those are important questions to ask the next attorney general. The question I think is whether it comes up in lame duck session where they have the majority, or whether it comes up in January when hopefully the Republicans have the majority.”
Paul backing this strategy comes right after Sessions rolled it out last week and then Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) backed him the next day.
“We need someone at the Department of Justice who will restore fidelity to our national laws and boundaries,” Sessions said. “No Senator should vote to confirm anyone to this position who does not firmly reject the President’s planned executive amnesty-or any other scheme to circumvent our nation’s immigration laws-and who does not pledge to serve the laws and people of the United States.”
“I’ll give you three answers to that, yes, yes, and absolutely yes,” Cruz said when asked if he backs that strategy during an interview with Breitbart News at the Value Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council last week.
Paul’s comments on this came in an interview with Breitbart News backstage after he had just spoken for half an hour to University of South Carolina students here in the Harper College building. Paul honed in on civil liberties, expanding the size and reach of the Republican Party without abandoning conservative principles, the president’s executive overreach, and a variety of other issues before taking questions from the more than 100 students in the audience via Twitter using the hashtag #USCAskRand.
Paul’s been very active in presidential states early on ahead of the 2016 cycle, and is conducting a series of stops here in South Carolina on Tuesday before heading to North Carolina on Wednesday to endorse GOP U.S. Senate nominee Thom Tillis there.
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