President Obama refused to apologize Friday morning for his use of executive actions, saying that House Speaker John Boehner shouldn’t sue the president for his action when Congress is at a standstill.
“The suit is a stunt,” Mr. Obama said during an interview on “Good Morning America.” “But what I’ve told Speaker Boehner directly is if you’re really concerned about me taking too many executive actions, why don’t you try getting something done through Congress?
“I’m not going to apologize for trying to do something while they’re doing nothing,” he added.
Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, announced earlier this week that he planned to lead the House in a lawsuit against the president for overstepping his bounds with executive actions. He said Americans all around the country ask him to stand up to the president’s abuse of power whenever he travels outside Washington.
A spokesman for Mr. Boehner said Friday that those same Americans likely won’t appreciate the president making light of the lawsuit.
“The American people, their elected representatives and the Supreme Court have all expressed serious concerns about the president’s failure to follow the Constitution,” Michael Steel said in a statement. “Dismissing them with words like, ’smidgen’ or ’stunt’ only reinforces their frustration.”
Republicans have been critical of Mr. Obama for going around Congress in several areas, including delays to Obamacare, raising the minimum wage for federal contractors and authorizing the release of five Guantanamo detainees in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
But the president noted that Mr. Boehner has not yet said specifically what he will sue about, only saying broadly that Mr. Obama has failed to faithfully execute the laws of the country. That’s caused some analysts to agree with the president that the lawsuit is just a political stunt to energize Republicans in an election year.
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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