Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) said Friday that Congress should impeach President Barack Obama if he uses executive action to expand background checks to more gun purchases.
After a gunman massacred nine people earlier this month at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, Republican presidential candidates stoked gun owners’ fears that Obama and Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton are coming to take their firearms away. The gun confiscation paranoia appeared to stem from a Washington Post report that said Obama was mulling an executive order that would compel high-volume gun dealers to perform background checks on buyers.
Newsmax TV host J.D. Hayworth asked DeLay in an interview whether he thought it would be an impeachable offense for the President to sign such an order.
“Well, I think it’s an impeachable offense, but are you going to get enough votes to impeach him?” DeLay replied.
“The very fact that you might bring it before the Judiciary Committee and investigate it and determine whether it’s an impeachable offense is a very healthy thing to do,” he added. “The House needs to use its power of hearings to start letting the American people know that this is a lawless President. We have a lawless Supreme Court. The judiciary needs to step up and show the American people what this President is doing, which will support any other efforts to defund the President.”
