Cordes Hypes New Conservatives on Boehner's 'Far Right Flank' as Destructive on Illegal Immigration

November 6th, 2014 9:18 PM

During Thursday’s CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, Nancy Cordes continued to disparage conservatives, as she referred to some of the newly elected House of Representatives members as being to Speaker John Boehner’s “far right flank” and joining returning Representatives who stifled “Boehner’s own attempts” to address illegal immigration (that President Obama is expected to act upon soon in an executive order). 

Her choice of words regarding conservatives comes after she badgered Boehner at his weekly press conference earlier in the day, during which she asked him how he will “deal with” this “new crop of conservatives” that she portrayed as having said “among other things, that women need to submit to the authority of their husbands, that Hillary Clinton is the anti-Christ” and “don’t think you’re conservative enough.” [MP3 audio here; Video below]

Following soundbites of Boehner saying that the newly Republican-controlled Congress will act on the Keystone Pipeline and “restoring the 40-hour work week that was gutted by ObamaCare” and warning the President to not “poison the well” by issuing an executive order on amnesty for illegal immigrants, Cordes went after conservatives:

But Boehner's own attempts to craft immigration legislation has been blocked by members of his own party who worry reform would give new rights to people who came here illegally and Tuesday's election added more members on his far right flank, North Carolina's Mark Walker has suggested blitzing the border with fighter jets. Virginia's Barbara Comstock said undocumented immigrants should be tracked like FedEx packages.

Only at the conclusion of the two-minute-and-16-second story did Cordes take a moment to highlight some newly elected Congresspeople in a positive light as examples of whom Boehner said would be “solid members”: "Those solid members, he said, include Elise Stephanik of New York, who will be the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress and William Herd of Texas, who is African American and a former CIA Agent."

The complete transcript of the segment that aired on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on November 6 can be found below.

CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley
November 6, 2014
6:38 p.m. Eastern

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Republican Majority]

SCOTT PELLEY: In politics, Republicans picked up at least 13 seats in the House in Tuesday's elections, giving them their largest majority there since Harry Truman was President. Today, Speaker John Boehner talked about what he plans to do with that expanded authority, and Nancy Cordes is on Capitol Hill. 

HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: I missed you all. 

NANCY CORDES: He may already run the House, but Speaker Boehner's power grew Tuesday night because bills he passes will no longer get sidelined in the Senate now that it's controlled by his party. 

BOEHNER: Those bills will offer the Congress, I think, a new start. We can act on the Keystone Pipeline, restore the 40-hour work week that was gutted by ObamaCare. 

CORDES: Boehner warned the President not to try to fix parts of the nation's broken immigration system on his own by executive action. 

BOEHNER: He is going to poison the well. When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself. 

CORDES: But Boehner's own attempts to craft immigration legislation has been blocked by members of his own party who worry reform would give new rights to people who came here illegally and Tuesday's election added more members on his far right flank, North Carolina's Mark Walker has suggested blitzing the border with fighter jets. Virginia's Barbara Comstock said undocumented immigrants should be tracked like FedEx packages. [TO BOEHNER] You have a new crop of conservatives coming into the House who have suggested, among other thing, that women need to submit to the authority of their husbands, that Hillary Clinton is the anti-Christ, and some of them don’t think you’re conservative enough

BOEHNER: No, no, no. 

CORDES: How do you deal with them differently than you did in the last Congress? 

BOEHNER: Look, I think the premise of your question I would take exception to. Yes, we have some new members who have made some statements, I'll give you that, but when you look at the vast majority of the new members that are coming in here, they're really solid members. 

CORDES: Those solid members, he said, include Elise Stephanik of New York, who will be the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress and William Herd of Texas, who is African American and a former CIA Agent. Overall, Scott, Speaker Boehner said he's very happy with his party's recruitment this election cycle. 

PELLEY: Nancy Cordes on Capitol Hill. Nancy, thank you very much.