Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.), who was recently elected House majority whip, spoke to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday this week to address the chatter surrounding President Obama’s potential impeachment and the current immigration crisis at the United States border.
When asked what Congress will do if the president once again abuses his executive power and delays the deportation of immigrants that have crossed illegally into the U.S., Scalise assured the Fox News host that the House will “put options on the table” to sue the president for overreaching his executive authority.
Scalise alleged, however, that the impeachment rumors originate from the White House and not Republicans in Congress.
“This might be the first White House in history that’s trying to start the narrative of impeaching their own president,” detailed the Louisiana congressman. “Ultimately, what we want to do is see the president following the laws. The president took an oath to faithfully execute the laws of this land and he’s not. In fact, the Supreme Court unanimously more than 12 times … said the president overreached.”
Scalise also accused the president of “going out and trying to fundraise” off of this impeachment narrative.
“The White House will do anything they can to change the topic away from the president’s failed agenda,” he explained. “People are paying higher costs for food, for health care, for gas at the pump and the president isn’t solving those problems. So, he wants to try to change the subject.”
On the issue of the border crisis, Scalise assured Wallace that the House is committed to securing the border and fixing the flawed 2008 immigration reform law that has contributed to the crisis.
He also said that Obama has been “AWOL” on the immigration issue.
“Ultimately, this is the president’s responsibility,” stated Scalise. “He could fix this problem today; he’s chosen not to.”
Though Scalise wouldn’t say whether or not Congress would delay its upcoming August recess if they don’t come to agreement on how to fix the problem this week, he insisted that, if the border crisis isn’t addressed by the end of this week, the fault lies with the president or with the Senate and not with House Republicans.
“We’re in Congress right now and the president doesn’t want to work with us when we’re in town,” Scalise explained. “He wants to wait until people are gone. The president has a lot of time on his schedule to secure fundraisers; he has no time to secure the border. He has not taken his job seriously in this regard. The House wants to lead. The House has laid out what we’ll do to solve this problem.”
“We’re going to stay and we’re going to work; we’re going to get our job done,” he later added. “I’d like to see the Senate take something up and do their job. I’d like to see the president do his job, but we’re not going to wait for that.”
This was Scalise’s first national interview since being elected incoming House majority whip.
