President Barack Obama is "going around democracy" with his continued use of executive actions, says Sen. Rand Paul.
Obama's latest threat to bypass Congress concerns an international agreement on tackling
climate change. The administration says it is looking to enforce an old treaty combined with using peer pressure to shame countries into complying with carbon emission reductions.
Such action, the White House argues, does not require the two-thirds Senate approval that an official treaty would.
"Not only is it an abuse of power, I think it almost leads us to a constitutional crisis of sorts," Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said Wednesday on Fox News Channel's
"On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."
Recalling Obama's line from January that he has a pen and a phone to take action without Congress, Paul said the president "doesn't seem to grasp checks and balances."
Paul said he supports resolutions, legislation, and House Speaker John Boehner's lawsuit to stop Obama's executive actions.
Paul, an expected Republican presidential candidate in 2016, also was asked about his recent comments calling Hillary Clinton, the current frontrunner on the Democratic side, a war hawk.
Alluding to the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, Paul said there now are "jihadists everywhere" in Libya.
"We're less safe as a country with the chaos in Libya than we were when [Muammar] Gadhafi ruled the place," Paul said, adding that Clinton, who was secretary of state during Obama's first term, doesn't grasp the repercussions of "what she created in Libya."
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