Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said executive orders can only be executed properly and appropriately when a Democrat occupies the White House.
“We need a Democratic president for a number of reasons,” the Nevada Democrat said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters about climate change-related issues.
“We’ve learned over the last few years from trying to govern the country by executive order that there’s a lot that can be done legally with executive order,” Reid said, a reference to President Trump’s unilateral moves on immigration, climate, deregulation generally, and other issues. “Only the Democratic president can get that done.”
Reid then added he preferred to craft public policy through the legislative process, all of which he said he hopes will be in Democratic hands after the 2020 elections including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi staying in her post.
“With a Democratic president, Democratic Senate, and with Nancy Pelosi, the great leader she is, I look forward to wonderful things happening.”
The last Democratic president, Barack Obama, issued executive orders fairly aggressively, particularly after the House fell into Republican hands in the 2010 elections, and the Senate four years later.
In February 2014, Obama signed an executive order raising the pay for employees of federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10.
His most prominent executive order came in 2012, which ceased deportation of children who came into the country illegally, if the youths met specific requirements.
In 2017, President Trump rolled back that executive order. It is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
President Trump has signed his own raft of executive orders, including canceling student loan debt for disabled veterans and putting an economic embargo on the Venezuelan dictatorship of President Nicolás Maduro.
Reid’s remarks are in line with career as a sharp-tongued legislator, particularly during the latter years of his 30-year Senate tenure, ending in January 2017. Reid served as Senate majority leader for eight years and minority leaders for four, including parts of President George W. Bush’s White House stay.
Reid at various times called the then-president a “liar” and a “loser,” and previously said Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was “an embarassment.”
