In 2014, President Obama has made much of his pen-and-a-phone strategy to accomplish his goals in the face of what he calls an “unprecedented pattern of obstruction” from Republicans in Congress. Apparently the president’s supporters are on board with the idea of unilateral executive action. At a meeting last Friday, a supporter of the president asked about the possibility of “a state of emergency.” The president relayed the story to another groups of supporters at a Democratic National Committee event later in the day at a private residence in Purchase, New York:
Of course, “how the Constitution works” is at the heart of the dispute between the president and Republicans in the House who recently voted to move forward with a lawsuit against the president for overstepping his constitutional authority. Interestingly, regardless of how seriously President Obama took his supporter’s question, he went on to tell his audience “there’s actually a solution to this that our Founders envisioned.” However, he was not talking about executive orders:
The president went on to tell his DNC audience that “we have the opportunity to do that during these midterms,” although based on a recent email that President Obama sent on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), the Democrats may have already written off their chances of winning back the majority in the House elections in November:
The president did not specifically mention the elections for the House of Representatives in his DSCC fund raising email, nor in his remarks at the event on Friday.
President Obama spoke at three fundraisers on Friday. At this point, the White House has posted a transcript of the president’s remarks from only one.
