President Obama has taken it upon himself to bypass Congress and issues numerous executive orders surrounding ObamaCare and immigration reform despite having questionable constitutional authority to do so. Despite the serious issues with President Obama’s continuous usurping of Congress, both Bob Schieffer and Jonathan Karl mocked GOP skepticism of President Obama on the Sunday shows.
On February 9th, Schieffer and Karl rushed to attack the GOP over immigration reform and for showing skepticism over President Obama’s unwillingness to be an honest broker on immigration reform. On ABC’s This Week, fill-in host Karl declared that, “Can we acknowledge that this excuse that the speaker used, it's the president and Republicans can't trust him. Can we acknowledge that was a pretty lame excuse?”
At the beginning of the segment, Karl asked Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK) “what happened” on the issue of immigration reform. “Two weeks ago Speaker Boehner’s releasing a statement of principles talking optimistic about immigration reform and now suddenly what? What happened?”
After the Oklahoma Republican admitted that division does exist among Republicans on immigration reform, Karl immediately argued that:
Can we acknowledge that this excuse that the speaker used, it's the president and Republicans can't trust him. Can we acknowledge that was a pretty lame excuse? This was really about opposition within the Republican Conference.
For his part, Cole shot down Karl’s ridiculous assertion that GOP skepticism was illegitimate and pointed out that:
The president changed on immigration before. He said something he wanted to do was unconstitutional, a year later, he did it. We have seen him change the health care act repeatedly in ways we think are outside.
Bob Schieffer expressed a similar statement on Face the Nation during an interview with Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and actually laughed at Ayotte expressing skepticism towards President Obama on immigration.
Well what is it that they don't trust on the immigration front? Are they afraid he's going to pull the border patrol back or something or what?
Much like Cole did with Jonathan Karl, Ayotte reiterated the point that:
What he's done is issued multiple executive orders where the law said this, and we're going to do this because it's not working out. So I think that is what it comes from.
Did Schieffer and Karl forget that President Obama unilaterally changed immigration enforcement on “dreamers” without the approval of Congress? Or that Obama has issued numerous delays in ObamaCare without Congressional authorization?
Given Obama’s history of making dramatic policy changes without consulting Congress, is it any wonder that Republicans would be skeptical of the president? Instead, Karl and Schieffer acted more like Democrats than actual journalists, choosing to mock the GOP’s distrust of President Obama rather than take their criticism of President Obama seriously.
See relevant transcripts below.
This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos
February 9, 2014
JONATHAN KARL: Congressman Cole, what happened? Two weeks ago Speaker Boehner’s releasing a statement of principles talking optimistic about immigration reform and now suddenly what? What happened?
TOM COLE: Well I think actually probably people over read both of those incidents. That is we’ve begun to dialog and a conversation inside the Republican Conference. I think that's good. I think step-by-step progress is still out there. Whether or not Democrats want to work that way is unclear but you could clearly get a border security bill through. I think you could get HB1 visas through. I think you could get seasonal labor through. I think there's still a path there. But it's recognizing political reality. There’s a lot of division on the issue.
KARL: Can we acknowledge that this excuse that the speaker used, it's the president and Republicans can't trust him. Can we acknowledge that was a pretty lame excuse? This was really about opposition within the Republican Conference.
COLE: No. Look, I was at the conference where this was discussed. And I will tell you there is a great deal of skepticism and concern. The president changed on immigration before. He said something he wanted to do was unconstitutional, a year later, he did it. We have seen him change the health care act repeatedly in ways we think are outside the—the concern’s real.
KARL: This was nothing new in the last two weeks, though.
COLE: No, it's not. But remember that's a draft statement, not a statement of principles from the conference.
CBS Face the Nation
February 9, 2014
10:43 a.m. Eastern
BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you think, senator, that Republicans can win a presidential election if they don't find some way to appeal to Hispanics who are such a growing part of the voting public right now, because they just almost -- Mitt Romney got fewer Republican votes than any -- even any Republican in recent years. Aren't you going to have to do something on that line?
KELLY AYOTTE: Well, I hope, Bob, that we will take this issue up because this is an issue of national security and an issue for our economy. And I think the Republicans; there are many ideas that we have that Hispanic voters on the economic front certainly on values that we share with them. So I think we need to solve it and here's the deal. The status quo is totally unacceptable. Both on illegal immigration front and legal immigration with regard to our economy. That said, there is a big trust deficit right now, which you can understand. I mean when do you big things poorly like this administration has done with ObamaCare you can understand with a complex issue like immigration reform that there’s a lot of lack of trust among House Republicans and other Republicans.
SCHIEFFER: Well what is it that they don't trust on the immigration front? Are they afraid he's going to pull the border patrol back or something or what?
AYOTTE: Well, I mean, what he's done is issued multiple executive orders where the law said this, and we're going to do this because it's not working out. So I think that is what it comes from. And the issue relates to securing the border, wanting to avoid a third wave of illegal immigration now that said I think administration if they ignored securing the border they’d do so at their own political peril. So I hope that the House Republicans will take this up and will solve this problem because again status quo is not acceptable for the country.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter. [1]