President Barack Obama hit back at Republicans who want to impeach him as well as those who want to sue him on Thursday.
President Barack Obama speaks on the economy at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, Thursday, July 10, 2014. President Obama ridiculed congressional Republicans on Thursday, accusing them of doing little more than opposing his agenda in a campaign-style rally with less than four months remaining before midterm elections. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Kye R. Lee, Pool)
“You hear some of them, sue him, impeach him,” Obama said speaking in Austin Thursday, defending his unilateral actions without Congress that has prompted a pending lawsuit by the Republican-controlled House.
“Really? For what?” Obama continued. “You're going to sue me for doing my job? OK. Think about that. You're going to use taxpayer money to sue me for doing my job when you don't do your job.”
The president appeared to be having fun during the speech in one of the most heavily Democratic areas of a very Republican state
Obama has rarely mentioned impeachment, nor have many Republican lawmakers for that matter. But the issue of bringing impeachment charges against the president gained attention this week when 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin called for the House to impeach Obama for failing to secure the border.
Meanwhile, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy's book “Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama's Impeachment” was released last month stating that Obama's actions without Congress warrant impeachment, but that a political case must be made for doing so.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) who is leading the congressional lawsuit, said the House would not consider impeachment.
Obama boasted during the Austin speech that his administration has taken more than 40 executive actions this year without Congress, many of which were outlined in a White House report Thursday.
He said that's still fewer than his predecessor.
In front of the crowd of Texans, Obama invoked the state's former governor, George W. Bush.
“It's not clear how it is the Republicans didn't seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did,” Obama said. “Maybe it's just me they don't like. I don't know. Maybe there is some principle out there that I haven't discerned, that I haven't figured out.”
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