Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt declared that a judge’s ruling halting the president’s executive action on immigration was “a pretty devastating smackdown of the president, who billed himself to us a Constitutional Law expert” on Tuesday’s “Happening Now” on the Fox News Channel.
“This ruling, that came out last night, is a pretty devastating smackdown of the president, who billed himself to us as a Constitutional Law expert. It says, that while the president is allowed to sort of have his own policies about who–about how, and what way to go about deporting illegals here, he has no right to bequeath upon them rights and benefits that are reserved for US citizens. And–furthermore, he has no right to basically take his policies, and extend them beyond his administration. There’s nothing he can do that–without an act of Congress intervening, that can tell future presidents how they must street this group of illegal immigrants, that he has picked out to save” he said.
When asked why Congressional Democrats were supporting the president’s executive action, he stated “well I think because the president is doing something that a lot of them agree with. And I would actually argue that this is a problem that we’ve seen over the past 10 years, even with President Bush and Republicans in Congress. Congress has done so much in the past decade or two decades to sort of relent, to give up their own authority over a of these issues. And it’s a bipartisan plague, and it’s very troubling, and you know, it should alarm every American.”
Hurt continued, saying Congress had become “enablers, and what they have done is– they’re undercutting themselves. But the only thing I care about is, they’re undercutting the American people….when Congress gives up its authority, to a president, whatever his party, it’s really dangerous.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett