A flash of anger directed at Vice President Joe Biden by President Obama at a Friday White House meeting of congressional leaders highlights disruptive disagreement inside the administration over Obama's plan to take executive action on immigration amnesty.
During a tense discussion on immigration, Obama silenced Biden with a sharp glare when Biden asked how long Republicans thought it might take to come up with an immigration bill,
the Weekly Standard reported.
"Biden asked how long Republicans might need to bring up an immigration bill, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting, asking if they might be ready by mid-February or another time this spring. Mr. Obama gave him a look that ended that line of discussion," sources at the meeting told the Weekly Standard.
The brief, revelatory clash was
confirmed by Bloomberg, which wrote, "The president briskly shut Biden down after the vice president asked Republicans how much time they thought they'd need to pass an immigration overhaul, a question that ran against Obama's point that he's done waiting and is preparing to issue an executive order dealing with immigration because the House won't vote."
Obama has insisted he intends to take executive action on immigration, even though House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have warned against it.
"I'm going to do what I can do through executive action," Obama vowed on "Face The Nation."
"It's not going to be everything that needs to get done and it will take time to put that in place. In the interim, the minute they pass a bill that addresses the problems with immigration reform, I will sign it and it supersedes whatever actions I will take and I am encouraging them to do so," Obama told "Face the Nation."
Story continues below video.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, "The simple question before the White House and before the president himself is: Is the president going to use the authority that he has under the law and under the Constitution to take some steps that’d be good for the American people? And the simple answer to the question is yes. That’s what he’s going to do, and he’s going to do it before the end of the year," Bloomberg reported.
The Wall Street Journal noted, "Democratic congressional aides said the president wasn’t cutting off Mr. Biden, who was making a rhetorical point that Republicans refused to commit to bringing an immigration bill to the floor by a specific time."
However, Bloomberg noted that a former Republican aide involved with productive negotiations between Biden and McConnell in the past said the Obama-Biden clash serves as an indicator on whether the administration will allow Biden to continue to negotiate legislative deals.
"Whether Obama lets Biden re-engage will be an indication of whether Obama really wants to pass legislation in the next two years," the former aide told Bloomberg.
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