On Thursday’s coverage of President Barack Obama’s address to the nation regarding changes to executive immigration policy, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) made an appearance to react to the executive action.
King questioned the constitutionality of the action and question the authenticity of Obama’s remarks.
“I just have this sinking feeling in my stomach about the situation that the president has thrown this nation into,” King said. “We have a fresh feeling coming off an election. The president know knows what he’s doing. Twenty-two times he said that he doesn’t have the power to do this and yet he stepped out and did this anyway.”
“It’s hard to make a clear, concise constitutional argument on this given what the president has given us because they’re just vague descriptions,” he continued. “So if you are a criminal, you will be deported. We know that’s not true. The criminals are not going to be deported. Those who cross the border illegally have committed a crime by definition. Those who have committed document fraud, they have committed a crime and most of them a felony, by definition they’re not going to be punished by all of this.”
Later in the segment, King explained that Obama may or may have not caught the Congress at the wrong time. King explained that if there is a backlash from the American public, it would almost immediately be reflected within the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I can feel that rejection boiling up here,” King said. “It’s not to a boiling point. The president picked a time when most planes were leaving town out of Dulles and out of Reagan to go back to the districts had already taken off. There are only about two or three of us left in town. But I’ve been raising this issues with my colleagues since June or July. I didn’t see their temperature go up the way I thought it should have. They had trouble dealing with the hypotheticals. They had trouble believing the president would actually do this. Now I think that people are home – that may be a mistake for the president while Congress is away because they’ll be going to some town hall meetings and hearing from their constituents. And if America boils over, so will the United States House of Representatives.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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