Mary Landrieu: I Oppose Obama's Planned Executive Amnesty

SHREVEPORT, Louisiana — Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) opposes President Barack Obama’s planned executive amnesty, she said at a press conference after a vicious debate between Landrieu, Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness. 

Landrieu also touted the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill, and she dodged on whether she would support an attorney general nominee who favors Obama’s planned executive amnesty.

“First of all, I’ll put my record up against anyone’s when it comes to immigration and border security,” Landrieu, a Democrat facing a tough re-election battle, said when asked by Breitbart News if she supports Obama’s planned executive immigration actions. The Seantor was also asked whether she would vote for an attorney general to replace the outgoing Eric Holder, who supports the president’s immigration plans. Landrieu said:

As Chair of the Homeland Security Committee which has jurisdiction over the border, I’ve increased border agents, built a smart and sophisticated fence–and I have voted for a bill that John McCain authored, who was with my opponent yesterday, that would double the number of agents on the border and provide a pathway to citizenship for 12 million people. So, I do not support executive action. I support congressional action. I have already voted for that bill. My opponent Bill Cassidy has not. I voted for a strong border security bill. I’m waiting for Bill Cassidy to do the same.

Landrieu completely ignored the part of the question about whether she’d support a Holder replacement who stands with Obama on planned executive amnesty.

Maness said that is unacceptable. “No attorney general should be confirmed who supports the President’s lawless and unconstitutional push for executive amnesty,” Maness told Breitbart News via email after the debate.

Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) recently drew a line in the sand on the replacement for the outgoing Holder, saying that no senator should vote for a Holder replacement who supports Obama’s planned executive amnesty. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell backs Sessions, as do Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rand Paul (R-KY).

Cassidy, likewise, ripped Landrieu for supporting amnesty–and doubling down on her support for the Gang of Eight bill.

“The senator supports amnesty,” Cassidy said, when asked by Breitbart News in a press gaggle about his thoughts on immigration after the debate. “I do not. She has recently publicly stated that. Indeed at some point she had the opportunity to take benefits being received by illegal immigrants and assign that benefit, if you will, to veterans. That will be one of the differences between us; voters can choose.”

Cassidy–a doctor–also said that Obama has handled the Ebola crisis “poorly.” Cassidy said in response to another Breitbart News question:

The way to handle that crisis is to restrict travel, and now they’re letting people leave the country, and that’s wrong. There was an Ebola epidemic in 1976, and it was recently reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that the way they controlled it then was to restrict travel in the region that was affected, they taught nationals how to address their healthcare needs, and then after doing that they were able to control the epidemic within several months. You need to restrict travel–that’s what you begin by, so the virus cannot spread elsewhere. The administration as best I can tell has not made that attempt.

Interestingly, during the entire hour-long debate, immigration and Ebola never came up.

But Landrieu sought to distance herself from Obama more than once.

“I have had the pleasure to represent the state for 18 years in the United States Senate, and while President Obama is not on the ballot, the future of Louisiana is,” Landrieu said in her closing statement of the debate–a seeming parting shot at Obama’s recent comments that while he’s not on the ballot, his policies are.

“Although the president may not be popular in some parts of Louisiana, he’s wildly popular in others,” Landrieu said during the press conference after the debate, adding: “I’ve worked with three presidents. I haven’t agreed with President Obama on everything. I didn’t agree with President Bush on everything, and I didn’t agree with President Clinton on everything.”

“He will not fess up up to that, and all he talks about is President Obama,” Landrieu said at another point during the debate while attacking Cassidy.