by Jonathan Strong

Nov 21, 2014 6:39 AM PT

Speaker John Boehner said he told President Obama he was “damaging the presidency itself” in a conversation yesterday during his first public remarks following Obama's decision to issue an executive amnesty.

Boehner vowed “in the days ahead the people's House will rise to the challenge. We will not stand idle as the president undermines the rule of law in our country and places lives at risk.” But he did not outline any specific actions he planned to take. 

“The President has taken actions that he himself has said are those of a king or an emperor, not an American president,” Boehner added.  

Regarding the president's taunt to "pass a bill" if Republicans were upset with him, Boehner said he had warned Obama throughout the last year that the president's actions were destroying his ability to do that. 

"All year long I warned the president that by taking unilateral action on matters such as health care or by threatening action repeatedly on immigration, he was making it impossible to build the trust necessary to work together," Boehner said.

"You can't ask the elected representatives of the people to trust you to enforce the law if you're constantly demonstrating that you can't be trusted to enforce the law. The president never listened, and with this action he refused to listen to the American people," he added. 

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