GOP Congressman: If Obama Moves Alone On Immigration, Then Impeachment Could Be On The Table
"None of us want to do the thing that's left for us as an alternative," King told host Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," when asked about a potential presidential executive action to delay more deportations of undocumented immigrants.
"But if the president has decided he's simply not going to enforce any immigration law ... I think Congress has to sit down and have a serious look at the rest of this Constitution, and that includes that 'I' word that we don't want to say."
King quickly qualified his statement, adding, "I only say that now on this program because I want to encourage the president, 'Please don't put don't put America into a constitutional crisis.'"
Obama said in June he would move to bypass Congress by taking certain unilateral actions on immigration, frustrated with Congress' inability to pass much of anything related to immigration reform. House Speaker John Boehner had informed him earlier that month that the House would not vote on any immigration-related legislation for the rest of the year.
"I think, then, we have to sit down and take a look at that. Where would we draw the line otherwise?" King said of the potential executive actions and impeachment talks.
"If that's not enough to bring that about, then I don't know what would be. We've never seen anything in this country like a president that says, 'I'm going to make up all immigration law that I choose, and I'm going to drive this thing regardless of the resistance of Congress.'"
Boehner and other Republicans have dismissed any talk of impeachment as theater, and a ploy for Democrats to raise money ahead of the midterm elections. Last week, he said it was a "scam started by Democrats and the White House."
Indeed, within the first three days of White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer saying he wouldn't "discount" the possibility of impeachment last week, Democratic campaign organizations sent out no fewer than 21 emails mentioning impeachment.
Both the White House and Democrats have claimed a Republican lawsuit of the president could only be the start of Republicans' plans, saying it could escalate into impeachment proceedings.
"When the House takes an unprecedented step to sue the president of the United States, even though he is issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in 100 years, I think it would foolish to discount the possibility," Pfeiffer said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."