A top White House aide said Friday that Republicans should listen to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and avoid a government shutdown, one day after President Barack Obama announced sweeping executive actions on immigration that are already provoking a furious backlash from conservatives.
“Certainly, our hope is that Republicans will listen to Senator McConnell, who has said two things: one is that Republicans have to demonstrate to the American people that they can govern, and two, there’ll be no shutdowns or threats or things [like impeachment],” White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer told reporters at a breakfast in Washington hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
The day after the midterm election, when Republicans won the Senate majority, the incoming Senate majority leader said at a press conference, “Let me make it clear. There will be no government shutdowns and no default of the national debt.”
A number of Republicans, including Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and more than 50 House members are pushing to insert language in a must-pass spending bill to prohibit Obama from carrying out his executive actions. Senior administration officials have said he would veto such a bill, in which case the federal government would partially shut down.
Ahead of Obama’s Thursday evening announcement, McConnell promised that “if President Obama acts in defiance of the people and imposes his will on the country, Congress will act,” but he stopped short of charting a path forward.
Pfeiffer, who claimed in July that Obama’s immigration moves would raise the likelihood of GOP-led impeachment, said Friday: “You have some Republican members who have gone out there and floated the idea [of impeachment]. I mean, we’ll see, in the coming days, what the reactions from Republicans are.”
(Photo credit: Michael Bonfigli/The Christian Science Monitor)
