During an appearance on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, New Yorker magazine editor David Remnick complained that an intractable Congress has made it impossible for immigration reform to become law.
Speaking on Sunday, August 3, Remnick whined that President Obama is “pretty stifled” on immigration reform and lamented that “history is going to show that this presidency has been stifled at every angle.”
Moderator George Stephanopoulos seemed to express similar sentiments to Remnick as he bemoaned how on immigration reform “as you look at the range of legislation over the last two, four years, no hope that anything is going to get done.” Both Stephanopoulos and Remnick were quick to blame Congress for a lack of immigration reform and never once considered that President Obama has contributed to the lack of immigration legislation passing through Congress.
As the segment progressed, Fox News host Greta Van Susteren pushed back at Remnick’s assertion and insisted that "this is the discussion that the president should be having with Speaker Boehner and with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and it’s not happening. They're all on vacation. I mean, this is their job.”
Rather than concede that President Obama's failure to follow current immigration law has hurt his relationship with Congress, the ABC host once again complained that “I don't think another phone call or three more weeks in session is going to make any difference.
The Fox News host shot back one last time and maintained “I don't see any effort. You know, all I see is a lot of finger-pointing. I see a lot, everyone going up to microphones and talking. I really don't see them all sitting down to me.”
See relevant transcript below.
ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos
August 3, 2014
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: David Remnick, Greta says the president should show leadership here. But it does seem as you look at the range of legislation over the last two, four years, no hope that anything is going to get done.
DAVID REMNICK: No I think he’s pretty stifled. It's frustrating at times to see his projection of frustration. 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. If I could get in one word. The immigration issue, first of all, I think a lot of people at this table are here because of America's openness to immigration. I think that’s fair to say.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Probably all five of us.
BILL KRISTOL: Yeah, it was legal. There’s something called legal immigration and illegal immigration.
JOAQUIN CASTRO: There were not these rules back then, Bill.
KRISTOL: Well fine, if you want to make a case for open boarders as we had in 1910, I'm open to that. There are laws that should be enforced in my humble opinion.
CASTRO: But I mean when we talk about the immigration issue, we have to talk about it historically and in context. And I think often times in the debate, a lot of that context is either willfully lost or just not known.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: But this is the discussion that the president should be having with Speaker Boehner and with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and it’s not happening. They're all on vacation. I mean, this is their job.
CASTRO: Well, I agree.
VAN SUSTEREN: I don't get it. This happens to be their job.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess, I don’t know. I don't think another phone call or three more weeks in session is going to make any difference.
VAN SUSTEREN: No but I don't see any effort. You know, all I see is a lot of finger-pointing. I see a lot, everyone going up to microphones and talking. I really don't see them all sitting down to me.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter. [1]