The panel on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday discussed the current immigration crisis and the president’s insistence that he will once again use his executive power to try and solve the problem despite the fact that the House of Representatives passed two bills last week aimed at stifling the border issue.
Fox News host Greta Van Susteren got at the heart of the problem, alleging that President Obama’s lack of leadership is unacceptable.
“The real problem is we have an absence of leadership,” Van Susteren told ABC host George Stephanopoulos. “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should be back in Washington. The president should call him back and the House should be back in Washington. They should resolve this. They all go running to the cameras and say this is a humanitarian crisis and yet what do they all do? They all get out of town.”
The Fox News host likened the current situation in Washington to “a classroom where the teacher leaves the room.”
“All of a sudden there’s upheaval in the classroom,” Van Susteren continued. “The president is not showing any leadership. Instead he says, ‘I’ll just go on my own.’ Well, that’s not how a democracy is supposed to work.”
David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, rushed to the president’s defense and — echoing Obama himself — blamed the current inaction on Congress.
“I think he’s pretty stifled. It’s frustrating at times to see his projection of frustration,” explained Remnick. “You want him to suck it up and keep going at it and leading and leading. But I think history is going to show that this presidency has been stifled at every angle.”
As the panel delved deeper into the immigration debate, Van Susteren labeled the conversation a “discussion that the president should be having with Speaker Boehner and with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) of the House’s foreign affairs committee agreed with her.
“I guess, I don’t know,” said Stephanopoulos. “I don’t think another phone call or three more weeks in session is going to make any difference.”
“No but I don’t see any effort,” replied Van Susteren. “You know, all I see is a lot of finger-pointing. I see a lot, everyone going up to microphones and saying things. I really don’t see them all sitting down to me.”
The Fox News host implied that the president has given up trying to work with Congress to get things done.
“Leadership is tough,” Van Susteren said. “Being president is tough, but you’ve at least got to keep trying. You can’t just say, ‘I’ll go alone.'”
Last week, President Obama claimed he will “have to act alone” to solve the border crisis after House Republicans successfully passed measures to do just that. White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer even went so far as to say Congress has given Obama “no choice but to act” with his executive power on the immigration debacle.
Congress began its five-week recess on Friday, and the president will take off to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, for a 15-day vacation later this week.
