https://youtube.com/watch?v=e8OmTD5mWy8
CBS’s Major Garrett grilled White House press secretary Josh Earnest over the timing of President Obama’s decision to enact executive amnesty tomorrow, speculating that the president may be deliberately setting the decision against an upcoming congressional vote to fund the government.
Garrett noted that the continuing resolution set to expire on December 11 may be jeopardized by Republican opposition to the White House’s imminent executive amnesty. “Which is the president’s more preferred priority?” he asked Earnest.
Earnest dismissed the question, saying it’s too early to tell what steps the GOP will take.
But Garrett pressed on. “By the president’s own timing, he intended to do this — he made a public promise to do this — in September, and then delayed it, signaling to everyone that the timing of this is completely fluid,” he said. “It is discretionary. It’s at the president’s discretion.”
“So in that sense, putting it up against a continuing resolution and a government shutdown scenario is also a discretionary decision of the president’s,” Garrett continued. “It seems like he’s putting it right next to these other things.”
“That’s not the intent,” Earnest assured reporters. “This is not an effort to provoke a standoff here. . . . Are both parties responsible for the fact that both of these things are happening in relative close proximity? Probably? . . . But regardless of when the president decided to move forward on this action, I’m confident that there are plenty of senators that would’ve found a way to raise a ruckus about this.”