President Barack Obama shows a lack of respect for the Constitution in the numerous executive orders he has issued, but Republicans won't impeach him, Sen. Chuck Grassley tells
Newsmax TV.
"The president would love to have Congress impeach him because it'd make a martyr out of him," Grassley said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show." "We aren't dumb enough to do that."
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Still, Obama's actions are obviously unconstitutional, the Iowa Republican said.
"Even the courts have said that on 12 occasions, and don't forget the Supreme Court sat in on four or five occasions already," he said. "One time he took action that even his own two appointees in the Supreme Court said he acted unconstitutionally."
Switching gears to the media hammering of GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson and Republicans in general, Grassley said he sees some of the scrutiny as going too far.
"And Carson's specific case, I would say that when you say something or do something when you're 17 years old and you're in your early 60s now, there ought to be some leeway from what you perceive from when you're 17 years old versus what the situation is now," he said.
Grassley also touched on
Monday's meeting between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, advising the prime minister to hold off on any commitments until the next president takes office in January 2017.
"Don't forget he's been ill-treated by this president many times," Grassley said. "He doesn't owe this president anything."
Netanyahu feels a closeness to the United States and its people, "but there's no reason he should feel a closeness to this president the way he's been ill-treated," he said.
For that matter, it will take the next president to deal with the Islamic State (ISIS) because Obama has no "backbone" when it comes to international policy, Grassley said.
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