After pressuring President Barack Obama to delay his executive amnesty until after the midterms, panicked Senate Democrats are now reportedly pushing him for an indefinite delay to preserve their political lives.
But if Senate Democrats were more serious about blocking Obama’s executive amnesty than political posturing, they could instead urge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who has said he hoped Obama goes “real big” on executive amnesty, to bring up the House bill that would block it.
Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), and Mark Begich (D-AK) are Democrats facing tough reelection battles in red states. In New Hampshire, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) has seen her lead slip away, after Republican Scott Brown decided to make illegal immigration one his campaign’s focal points.
The offices of Senators Begich, Hagan, Shaheen, Landrieu, and Pryor did not respond when Breitbart News recently asked if those Senate Democrats support the House’s bill to defund Obama’s executive amnesty and would push Reid to bring it up on the Senate floor before the midterms.
Their silence on the matter undermines their rhetoric during campaign season. For instance, Hagan, who has been criticized for opposing amnesty before she supported it, told Politico, “I don’t think it should be by executive action,” when asked “whether delaying executive action was not sufficient.” Her sentiment, according to the outlet, has been echoed by Sens. Al Franken (D-MN), who is also up for reelection, Begich, and even Sen. Angus King, the independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) recently said that Obama “has openly reaffirmed his unconstitutional plan to nullify our nation’s sovereign laws” and called out Senate Democrats for enabling him. Sessions said the amnesty issue should be injected into the midterm elections, while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has said this year’s races should be a national referendum on Obama’s lawless executive amnesty.
“There must be no confusion on this point: not one Senate Democrat has supported the House bill to stop this executive action and demanded that Leader Reid bring it to a vote,” Sessions said. “Every Senate Democrat is therefore the President’s direct partner in this lawless scheme. The remedy now is for the American voter to send a message that will thunder through the halls of Congress.”
And this week, Cruz, who introduced the Senate’s bill that would defund any future acts of executive amnesty, said “the only reason it hasn’t passed into law is that Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats refuse to vote on it.” He asked, along with some House Republicans and Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sessions, “for one very simple thing, which is for Harry Reid to allow the Senate to do its job–to actually show up and schedule a vote and let Senators go on record whether or not they support amnesty.”
“If Senators support amnesty for those who are here illegally, let them look in the eyes of their constituents before election day and say this is what I support, let me know if you agree or not,” Cruz said, while also saying he thought “we should use any and all means necessary to prevent the president from illegally granting amnesty.”
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