President Barack Obama “is just throwing kerosene on a fire” if he “signs an executive amnesty order” on immigration, Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday.
Speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, Priebus joined a chorus of Republican leaders in issuing that warning. Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had identical thoughts.
Obama is considering taking unilateral action to effect changes in the nation’s immigration system. Do it, Priebus suggested, and any hope of cooperation between the White House and next year’s Republican-run Congress probably fades.
Such action, the chairman said, would amount to a “nuclear threat” to “the basis of the separation of powers doctrine.”
Priebus also talked about Tuesday’s elections, which saw big Republican gains in Congress. He credited several factors, including the Republican ground game and voter discontent with Obama.
He also thought the results didn’t bode well for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, regarded as the Democrats’ 2016 presidential frontrunner. She campaigned hard for Democrats all over the country.
Priebus called it “about a flat a performance from the Democrats’ brightest star....she didn’t fare very well.”