GENERAL LANGUAGE:
Sarah Palin: “Stop Obama’s amnesty to illegal aliens. Support our military. Bottom line: we elected you to stop Obama’s “fundamental transformation of America.” Do it – especially you Republicans who promised to do it. Or face America’s wrath next go ’round because an elephant never forgets.” [Breitbart, 12/10/14]
Sen. Elect Tom Cotton (R-AR): “As long as our border is open and it’s defenseless,” he said, “it’s not just an immigration issue — it’s a national security issue…the Islamic State is cutting the heads off of Americans right now and their leader has said they want to strike us right here in the United States, and that is something that we should be fearful of and we should take a strong stance against, whether it’s in Iraq or Syria or whether it’s securing our Southern border.” [Washington Post, 11/30/14]
Pat Buchanan: “So I think, really, you’re really talking about the beginning of the end of the United States as one nation and one people, when you’ve got your country open to, really, what is an invasion from abroad that you can’t really control. It reminds you of the late Roman Empire in the 4th century, when they’re coming across the Danube and the Rhine and the emperors don’t know what to do.” [ Daily Caller, 11/24/14]
Gov. Elect Greb Abbot (R-TX): the president of the United States not only doesn’t follow the law, but adamantly refuses to follow the law….[His actions are] the epitome of lawlessness that leads to dire consequences for our future if we don’t have Attorney Generals making sure the president abides by the law.” [Breitbart, 11/23/14]
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK): “The country’s going to go nuts. Because they are going to see it as a move outside of the authority of the president. And it’s going to be a very dangerous situation…You could see violence… “This is a big step, to not work with Congress, now that he’s got a new Congress, to go completely around it… Well here’s how people think — If the law doesn’t apply to the president, and it’s not affirmatively acted on for us as a group, like you’re seeing in Ferguson, Mo., then why should it apply to me?” [The Hill, 11/20/14]
Rick Santorum: “The president has acted like a tyrant and he has acted against the Constitution and he has thrown the Republicans and he has thrown the country a curveball, we’ve never dealt with anything like this before,” Santorum said. “That has to be not just backing Republicans in a corner, it’s backing Americans in a corner of a president who thinks he is above the law and above the Constitution” [Right Wing Watch, 11/21/14]
Michael Savage: “He’s in a long line of others who have taken the law onto themselves and said they’re not taking the law onto themselves, others who have said they’re acting within the law while they’re acting clearly outside of the law…When Hitler invaded a neighboring country, he said he was simply taking back German land on Lebensraum…Hitler took a neighbor’s countries away, but he didn’t do it illegally, he said he was doing it perfectly legally, like Obama.” [Right Wing Watch, 11/21/14]
Ben Carson: “And, boy, if he could use that intellect on behalf of the American people rather than on behalf of his nefarious agenda, we would be doing quite well…Essentially, is he just trying to instead of get out the vote, bring in the vote…Is this all designed to have new voters — despite the fact he claims they’re not going to get citizenship — is the long-term goal to bring in a new class of voters dependent on government?” [Right Wing Watch, 11/21/14]
“Hopefully the legislators in Congress will understand what they need to do…They need to have a spine, they need to stand up because once you allow someone to take liberties with the system, they’re not going to stop…This is going to keep going until you stop them. Our president is very much like Putin,” [Right Wing Watch, 11/21/14]
Kris Kobach: “What protects us in America from any kind of ethnic cleansing is the rule of law, of course. And the rule of law used to be unassailable, used to be taken for granted in America. And now, of course, we have a President who disregards the law when it suits his interests. And, so, you know, while I normally would answer that by saying, ‘Steve, of course we have the rule of law, that could never happen in America,’ I wonder what could happen. I still don’t think it’s going to happen in America, but I have to admit, that things are, things are strange and they’re happening.” [Right Wing Watch, 11/20/14]
Laura Ingraham “He needs you to demoralize the people you that you need to turn out and he wants you to think that somehow you get in this bidding war with him with the Latinos or illegal immigrants — that somehow there’ll be a mad rush of support for Republicans among these illegal immigrants and their family members who are legally here. But we know that’s no the case — you never outbid these people when it comes to distributing benefits…Memo to the Republicans: You must resist homegrown tyranny. This is the closest thing I have ever seen in my lifetime to soft dictatorship.” [Daily Caller, 11/20/14]
“When we subsidize something, We get more of it, and so the Republicans are subsidizing the next border wave in this omnibus spending bill. All together the omnibus push by Boehner contains $2.5 billion to accommodate illegal immigrants and refugees” [Breitbart, 12/11/14]
IMPEACH:
Wayne Allyn Root: “If he does that, don’t we then have to do instant impeachment? I mean, there’s no choice at that point. You can’t tell me that will break the nation apart, there’s no excuse,” [Right Wing Watch, 11/21/14]
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX): “Well, impeachment is indicting in the House and that’s a possibility. But you still have to convict in the Senate and that takes a two-thirds vote. But impeachment would be a consideration, yes sir.” [Talking Points Memo, 11/10/14]
Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano: “If [Obama] tells Homeland Security and Border Patrol, ‘Look the other way when illegals come in,’ that is violating his oath because it’s a failure to enforce the law… so if the practical effect of his executive order is the opposite of what the law requires, I hate to say this—Republicans don’t want to do it, and I understand why—he’s a candidate for impeachment.” [Fox News, 11/6/14]
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT): “If what is rumored to be in the works is in fact going to happen, it will be anything other than lawful if in fact what he’s going to do is issue an executive order just giving out green cards to millions of Americans, who under the law, as it’s written today, is not in effect, that’s not OK, that’s not lawful. And we’ll do everything we can to stop him, including withholding funds from his ability to carry out that project…we’ve got to lead out on this issue and make sure that he doesn’t lead us from behind into a constitutional crisis.” [Fox News, 11/6/14]
Rep. Steve King (R-IA):
“Anchor babies will be an automatic human shield for the mothers and fathers of the anchor babies…it will take us weeks to unravel [President Obama’s] blatant collage of lies…From my standpoint, if the president [enacts more executive actions], we need to bring impeachment hearings immediately before the House of Representatives,” [Breitbart, 11/23/14]
“We know there is the ‘I’ word in the Constitution that none of us want to say or act on… In this context, everything is on the table. We cannot have a president of the United States that believes that he can make up the law as he goes.” [NewsMax TV, 10/23/14]
Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R- MN): “I don’t think that John Boehner is going to bring about impeachment, which I understand, because what we really need is to remove Barack Obama from office, and the Senate has the power to remove the president, not the House,” [Mother Jones, 8/5/14]
“The social cost will be profound on the U.S. taxpayer — millions of unskilled, illiterate, foreign nationals coming into the United States who can’t speak the English language…Even though the president says they won’t be able to vote, we all know that many, in all likelihood, will vote.” [Washington Post, 11/20/14]
Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX): “For all I know, Obama is preparing to process five million illegal immigrant kids and teenagers into the United States… He wants us to impeach him now, before the midterm election because his senior advisers believe that is the only chance the Democratic Party has to avoid a major electoral defeat. Evidently Obama believes impeachment could motivate the Democratic Party base to come out and vote.” [WorldNetDaily, 7/26/14]
Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL): “[Obama] either enforces the laws on the books—as he was hired and elected to do—or he leaves Congress no option… This is not our choice, this is the president’s choice and I would advise him to uphold the law on the books.”[ Breitbart, 7/25/14]
Sarah Palin: “Enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president. His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, ‘no mas.'” [Breitbart, 7/8/14]
“In 2012, voters reelected President Barack Obama but they did not make him king,” [Breitbart, 11/20/14]
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA): “We’ve got three years to get this guy out… Hopefully he—well, let me put it this way, I think he probably has been engaged in these unconstitutional approaches that may make his own ability to stay in office a question.” [WorldNetDaily, 3/12/14]
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC): “To me a constitutional question means that we have the option of impeachment… We have a Constitution, and I am very disappointed from year to year that we do not follow the Constitution. To me, if you think the president has violated his trust of office, meaning with the American people, then follow the Constitution” [Breitbart, 11/13/14]
DEFUND:
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL):
“A long-term funding bill that does not deal with President Obama’s unconstitutional overreach, adopted before a single newly elected Republican is sworn-in, would be to acquiesce to the President’s unlawful action,” Sessions said in an apparent warning to House Republicans inclined to pass a year-long appropriations bill. “This executive amnesty scheme will give work permits, photo IDs, and Social Security numbers to millions of illegal immigrants—taking jobs directly from unemployed Americans… If Reid will not take up a long-term bill with these restrictions, then we should pass a short term CR so our new majority can include such language after it takes office” [National Review, 11/14/14]
“Congress appropriates the money,” Sessions told reporters Wednesday. “That’s a clear constitutional power. If Congress disapproves of the president providing ID cards for people who’ve been in the country illegally, then it should not appropriate money to fund it.” [AP, 11/12/14]
Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ.):
“But committing an impeachable offense and getting, you know, the two-thirds in the Senate to convict are two different stories,” Salmon said. “So, I mean, we have to play the hand that we are dealt right now… we should defund it. And he then doesn’t have the money to be able to do it. [NewsMax TV, 11/14/14]
“We write to encourage you to include language that would prohibit funding for the President’s reported intentions to create work permits and green cards for undocumented immigrants currently in the United States… President Obama has spoken publicly and privately about his intentions to use executive action to create these work permits for those who are here illegally. This would be in direct violation of U.S. law. As you know, the Congress has the power of the purse and should use it as a tool to prevent the President from implementing policies that are contrary to our laws and the desire of the American people.” [Letter to House Appropriations Committee, 11/7/14]
“It will stop him dead in his tracks if our conference decides to put on the spending bill that the president has to have by the end of the year that no money in that spending bill can go for these purposes, for this executive amnesty. If he does that, he’s in direct violation of the law,” [NewsMax, 11/14/14]
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): “The American people have just elected a new Senate majority to stop the misguided and liberal policies of the Obama Administration… The President’s attempts to grant amnesty through executive order will be the first battleground where this new Majority can stand up to this President and block his actions. I support Senator Sessions’ efforts to cut off funding for executive amnesty to protect the rule of law in America.” [Breitbart, 11/13/14]
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX): “Part of what’s I think creating the difficulty is the president’s threatened Obama amnesty, and one of the ways that that could be addressed would be through the spending…The president seems hell bent to do this, which I think is a terrible mistake, but it’s his to make.” [Roll Call, 11/12/14]
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX): “We might try to defund what he does. We’ll obviously try a lawsuit. There may be actions we can take otherwise,” [Bloomberg, 11/6/14]
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS): “We are not going to provide the taxpayer money to enforce it,” Mr. Wicker said on Fox News Sunday, saying the president’s plan is feeding a “climate of distrust and confrontation” in Washington. [Wall Street Journal, 11/16/14]
SHUTDOWN/GRIDLOCK
Sen. Ted Cruz (R- TX): “The Attorney General is the President’s chief law enforcement officer. As such, the nominee must demonstrate full and complete commitment to the law. Loretta Lynch deserves the opportunity to demonstrate those qualities, beginning with a statement whether or not she believes the President’s executive amnesty plans are constitutional and legal.” [Senate Release, 11/8/14]
“Both Houses should use the power of the purse, which the framers understood to be the most potent tool Congress has to rein in an out-of-control executive,” Cruz said in a statement. “We should pass a short-term continuing resolution that includes language defunding the implementation of the president’s executive action on amnesty.”
