Rep. Steve King Predicts Impeachment if Obama Grants Executive Amnesty

Rep. Steve King Predicts Impeachment if Obama Grants Executive Amnesty

on Sat, 26 Jul 2014

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) believes the House of Representatives will immediately begin impeachment proceedings if President Barack Obama unilaterally grants work permits and amnesty to millions more illegal immigrants by the "end of summer."

Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday with co-hosts Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon and Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, King said that if Obama "completely destroys the rule of law with the stroke of a pen" and "Congress fails to act," there will be "enough Republicans who didn't have a desire to do this" that will be "immediately activated" to consider impeachment. 

"From my standpoint, if the president [enacts more executive actions], we need to bring impeachment hearings immediately before the House of Representatives," King said. "That's my position and that's my prediction."

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has given Obama a six-page wish list of executive actions, and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) said Obama may give temporary amnesty and work permits to five million more illegal immigrants by expanding the Deferred Amnesty for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to the parents of illegal immigrants. King called that program lawless and unconstitutional. 

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has even recommended that Obama give amnesty, by executive fiat, to every illegal immigrant who would have received it under the Senate's comprehensive amnesty bill. In other words, amnesty for nearly all of the illegal immigrants in the country who are not hardened criminals. 

King said Obama's bold executive actions "would cause a thunderclap of eruption in Congress and from the American people" that Republicans will not be able to ignore. After calling illegal immigration "a virus that is eating away at the rule of law," King also denounced Obama's lawlessness that is "erasing our border" and "putting pressure on social services" while the country borrows even more money from China to finance its debt. 

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin called for Obama to be impeached on the pages ofBreitbart.com, saying that Obama's lawlessness on illegal immigration was the tipping point for her, because it impacts Americans of all races and backgrounds, including legal immigrants, and threatens the nation's sovereignty.

Palin wrote that "the many impeachable offenses of Barack Obama can no longer be ignored," and "if after all this he's not impeachable, then no one is." 

"It’s time to impeach; and on behalf of American workers and legal immigrants of all backgrounds, we should vehemently oppose any politician on the left or right who would hesitate in voting for articles of impeachment," she added.

As Breitbart News reported, Palin "has also emphasized that the Founders meant impeachment to be used as a check against a lawless executive" and told Republicans at the Western Conservative Summit last week in Colorado: "don't be afraid to raise" the impeachment issue:

Palin also mentioned that "high crimes and misdemeanors" does not refer to today's ordinary criminal charges. She reiterated that the Framers referred to "a dereliction of duty," and "the first duty of the president is to enforce our laws and preserve and protect and defend our Constitution." She said Alexander Hamilton said impeachable offenses refer to "the abuse or violation of some public trust." Hamilton called them "political offenses" because they relate "chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself," Palin said, noting that impeachment is a check against a lawless executive. 

National polls after Palin's op-ed have found that about one-third of Americans want Obama impeached, while a majority of Republicans think impeachment is justified. In one poll, two-thirds of Republicans wanted impeachment, while a majority of Americans felt Obama has exceeded his Constitutional authority. 

Breitbart News reported on Friday that some Republicans--like Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL)--discussed potentially impeaching Obama at a closed-door meeting in Congress on Friday. That same day, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said the White House was worried that Obama's potential executive actions on immigration could lead to impeachment.

“I saw a poll today that had a huge portion of the Republican Party base saying they supported impeaching the president. A lot of people in this town laugh that off. I would not discount that possibility,” Pfeiffer said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.