King: Censure or Shut Down, but Don't Impeach

The Hill

By David McCabe

November 21, 2014

King: Censure or shut down, but don't impeach

Conservative Republican Rep. Steve King (Iowa) says censuring the president or shutting down the government are potential responses to new executive actions on immigration reform — and impeachment shouldn't be.

"But I don't want to do the last thing. I don't want to do the 'I-word.' Nobody wants to throw the nation into that kind of turmoil," the Iowa lawmaker said on CNN Thursday night.

King had seemed slightly more open to the idea earlier in the week.

"We have constitutional authority to do a string of things. That would be the very last option, but I would not rule it out," he told CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

But speaking after President Obama unveiled his plan to halt the deportations of millions, King said censure could be an option for frustrated House Republicans.

"The second one could potentially — could be a censure for the president of the United States. That's not happened in more than a century, and that would be at least a direct message to the president," he said.

The only president in history to be sanctioned was Andrew Jackson, in 1834.

King also said that Republicans could shut down the government over the issue.

"I want to fund this government, I want to keep this government open," he said, "but if they ask me to vote for an appropriations bill that funds an unconstitutional act on the part of the president of the United States, I'm bound by my oath, as he should have been bound by his."

King is one of the House's most anti-reform members and has been aggressively opposed to any sort of executive action.

Obama's order will offer legal status to some immigrants living in the country illegally and make other changes to the immigration system.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com