President Donald Trump once said taking executive action on immigration was an unconstitutional action that could lead to impeachment.
Trump’s past comments are at odds with his current plans to declare a national emergency and other executive actions to secure funding for a border wall.
Trump made the comments on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” in November 2014 when asked about executive actions by then-President Barack Obama that would halt deportations for the undocumented parents of children born in the United States.
“Now he has to use executive action and this is a very, very dangerous thing that should be overwritten easily by the Supreme Court,” Trump said.
“So we’re looking now at a situation, it should absolutely not pass muster in terms of constitutionality, but it depends on what these justices do,” he added.
The White House did not return a request for comment.
Trump was also asked if the Obama had committed any impeachable offenses. He said Obama could certainly be impeached for his executive action on immigration.
“Well, he certainly did something that was unconstitutional,” Trump said. “Now, it depends on Justice (John) Roberts. If he wants to just curry favor in the Beltway like he did with Obamacare, because that’s the only reason he did it. Because he knows he was wrong, but it certainly depends on what happens. I mean, I think certainly he could be impeached and certainly they could shut down the government.”
The comments from Trump echo a tweet he sent, also from November 2014, in which he wrote, “Repubs must not allow Pres Obama to subvert the Constitution of the US for his own benefit & because he is unable to negotiate w/ Congress.”