President Obama said that his decision to delay executive action on immigration was not due to politics, but to the border crisis dominating immigration discourse in the country.
During an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press” that aired on Sunday, new host Chuck Todd asked the president if the delay was due to a political decision to help Democrats keep the Senate.
“Well, that’s not the reason,” Obama responded, explaining that he wants to “get it right.”
“It sounds like politics,” Todd cut in. “It looks like election year politics.”
Obama then added that “the problem with unaccompanied children” conrtibuted to he delay.
“It got a lot of attention,” he said, but added that the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the border has now fallen.
He then said he wanted to wait to make sure the American public understood why action on immigration was necessary.
“What I’m saying is that I’m going to act because it’s the right thing for the country. But it’s going to be more sustainable and more effective if the public understands what the facts are on immigration, what we’ve done on unaccompanied children, and why it’s necessary,” Obama said.
“The truth of the matter is that the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem,” he continued. “I want to spend some time, even as we’re getting all our ducks in a row for the executive action, I also want to make sure that the public understands why we’re doing this, why it’s the right thing for the American people, why it’s the right thing for the American economy.”
Watch the interview via NBC:
