At the CNN town hall last night, 2020 hopefull Kamala Harris pledged to use her power as president to issue executive actions on guns if Congress refuses to act:
Sen. Kamala Harris says if she is elected President, she will give Congress 100 days "to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws, and if they fail to do it, then I will take executive action" https://t.co/KFdn5Viqm1 #HarrisTownHall pic.twitter.com/Ds8DxObhAY
— CNN (@CNN) April 23, 2019
For starters, this is obviously not how the Constitution works:
This is not how the Constitution works. https://t.co/UYLrYAdPQG
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) April 23, 2019
That’s not how laws work in this country. There isn’t a clock that magically gives the executive authority to legislate if Congress chooses not to act on their priorities. https://t.co/DiaBW8pqIN
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) April 23, 2019
If only she would get this tough on felon voters:
Kamala Harris has talked tougher about America’s legal gun owners than the Boston Marathon bomber. https://t.co/knxTJQoeuY
— Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) April 23, 2019
Dems only hate this idea when it’s a Republican, however:
This, right here, is our bipartisan problem. This is exactly the argument Obama made with DACA, and it’s the argument Trump has made with the wall. The problem isn’t partisan, it’s structural. And it’s getting worse. https://t.co/hBT7TT0T3N
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) April 23, 2019
If Congress “refuses to act,” nothing happens. Congress makes the laws. If it declines to do so, the status quo obtains. The president is not a monarch, and he does not magically inherit legislative powers in such cases as the legislature displeases him.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) April 23, 2019
What she’s also missing here is that Obama tried to go the executive action route and still didn’t accomplish what he wanted to accomplish. Maybe she should at least acknowledge that there’s not much she can do?
Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Obama, says his administration "did what we could do by executive action" on gun reform, adding that she believes Congress will now "be forced to act" #MarchForOurLives https://t.co/Pj9OTXHFHR
— Jennifer Hansler (@jmhansler) March 24, 2018
Full details here:
100 Americans are killed by guns every single day. Gun violence is a national epidemic and it’s time we take action. Tonight I announced the executive actions I intend to take in my first 100 days as president if Congress refuses to act.https://t.co/elch3KYvNC
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) April 23, 2019
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