The Republican devil would make him do it! On MSNBC's Daily Rundown today, Kristen Welker repeatedly blocked GOP Senator Ron Johnson's attempts to talk about President Obama's threat to issue an executive order granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.
When she finally deigned to discuss the issue, Welker suggested that Republicans pass immigration legislation so that Obama doesn't "have" to issue an executive order.
I actually think of Kristen Welker as one of MSNBC's more down-the-middle reporters, an admittedly low bar. But today, Welker showed a more partisan side. Before giving Johnson a chance to raise the specter of Obama's executive order, Welker pressed the Wisconsin Republican to criticize John Boehner's pledge to permit a vote repealing Obamacare.
KRISTEN WELKER: I want to start with something you told the Wall Street Journal. You said, "there's no sense in rolling out things we won't agree on as the first thing. So, given that, as a good faith effort, shouldn't the Republicans drop this [Obamacare] repeal effort?
RON JOHNSON: Well I would think what President Obama ought to drops is his threatened unilateral action --
WELKER: Hold on. Before we get to --
JOHNSON: -- granting amnesty to --
WELKER: I'm asking you about health care. We'll get to immigration. But on health care --
JOHNSON: But Kristen, listen --
WELKER: -- but on health care, you know the President is not going to sign it [repeal] into law.
. . . .
JOHNSON: On the other hand, President Obama and immigration, he's got the executive authority to do something and that will poison the well and that actually would take effect and that would be I think very unfortunate if he decided to do that.
WELKER: All right, well let's talk about immigration. Why not get an immigration bill passed so that President Obama doesn't have to take unilateral action on immigration?
