Author Topic: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'  (Read 1233 times)

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Offline mystery-ak

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http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2014/08/07/abc-yawns-jon-karl-grills-obama-are-you-imperial-president?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Marketing&utm_term=Facebook&utm_campaign=carl-abc

ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
By Scott Whitlock | August 7, 2014 | 11:18

ABC journalist Jon Karl dared to push Barack Obama on his use of executive power, demanding to know if the commander-in-chief is an "imperial president." But Karl's own network ignored the question, declining to air it on Wednesday's World News and Nightline or on Thursday's Good Morning America.

It wasn't until the little-watched America This Morning, a program airing at 4am on ABC, that the question came up. At the August 6 news conference, Karl pointed out: "When you were running for president you said, quote, 'The biggest problems we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all and that's what I intend to reverse.'" [See video below of the question. MP3 audio here.]


Karl continued:

Quote
JON KARL: So my question to you, has Congress’s inability to do anything significant given you a green light to push the limits of executive power, even a duty to do so, or put another way, does it bother you more to be accused of being an imperial president, pushing those limits, or to be accused of being a do-nothing president who couldn’t get anything done because you faced a dysfunctional Congress?

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2014/08/07/abc-yawns-jon-karl-grills-obama-are-you-imperial-president#ixzz39ol9PVkY

In a follow-up question, Karl zeroed in: "Do you have the power to grant work permits to those who are here illegally as some of your supporters have suggested?"

World News, GMA and Nightline have a combined three hours of air-time. But none of these shows touched Karl's inquiry. Karl did appear on Thursday's GMA. Talking about Russia, co-host George Stephanopoulos blandly noted, "And the President was saying at his press conference yesterday, which you were at, that he wasn't prepared yet to offer more military aid to Ukraine." 

At 4:04am, America This Morning co-anchor Devin Dwyer recounted, "President Obama is defending his use of executive powers which is so angering House Republicans that they moved to sue him. Mr. Obama says he's willing to take bold unilateral action on immigration reform and tax policy if Congress won't." He then played a clip of Karl grilling the President.

What is the point of having Karl ask questions at news conferences and then not air them? Or the point of airing them in the middle of the night when no one is watching?

On May 22, Karl asked then-White House press secretary Jay Carney about the widening VA scandal. ABC's World News ignored it.

A transcript of Karl's August 6 questions (and Obama's response) is below:

Quote
BARACK OBAMA: Jon Karl, ABC News.

KARL: Thank you, Mr. President. When you were running for president you said, quote, “The biggest problems we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all and that’s what I intend to reverse.” So my question to you, has Congress’s inability to do anything significant given you a green light to push the limits of executive power, even a duty to do so, or put another way, does it bother you more to be accused of being an imperial president, pushing those limits, or to be accused of being a do-nothing president who couldn’t get anything done because you faced a dysfunctional Congress?

OBAMA: Well, I think that I never have a green light. I’m bound by the Constitution. I’m bound by separation of powers. There’s some things we can’t do. Congress has the power of the purse, for example. I would love to fund a large infrastructure proposal right now that would put millions of people to work and boost our GDP. We know we have roads and bridges and airports and electrical grids that need to be rebuilt, but without the cooperation of congress, what I can do is speed up permitting process, for example. I can make sure we’re working with the private sector to see if we can channel investment into much-need much-needed projects. But ultimately, congress has to pass a budget and authorize spending. So I don’t have a green light.

What I am consistently going to do is wherever I have the legal authorities to make progress on behalf of middle-class Americans and folks working to get to the middle class, whether it’s by making sure that federal contractors are paying a fair wage to workers, making sure that women had the opportunity to make sure that they are getting paid the same as men for doing the same job, where I have the capacity to expand some of the student loan programs that we have already put in place so repayments are a little more affordable for college graduates, I’m going to seize those opportunities and that’s what I think the American people expect me to do.

My preference in all these instances is to work with Congress because not only can Congress do more, but it’s going to be longer lasting. And when you look at, for example, congressional inaction and, in particular, the inaction on the part of House Republicans, when it comes to immigration reform, here’s an area, as I have said before, not only the American people want to see action, not only is there 80% overlap between what Republicans say they want and Democrats say they want, we actually passed a bill out of the senate that was bipartisan. And in those circumstances, what the American people expect is that despite the differences between the parties, there should at least be the capacity to move forward on the things we agree on. And that’s not what we’re seeing right now.

So in the face of that kind of dysfunction, what I can do is, you know, scour our authorities to try to make progress. And we’re going to make sure that every time we take one of these steps that we are working within the confines of my executive power, but I promise you the American people don’t want me just standing around twiddling my thumbs and waiting for congress to get something done. Even as we take these executive actions, I’m going to continue to reach out to Democrats and Republicans, to the speaker, to the leadership on both sides and in both chambers to try to come up with formulas where we can make progress, even if it’s incremental.

KARL: Do you have the power to grant work permits to those who are here illegally as some of your supporters have suggested?

OBAMA: What I certainly recognize with respect to immigration reform and I’ve said this in the past, is that we have a broken system. It’s under resourced, and we have to make choices in terms of how we allocate personnel and resources. So if I’m going to, for example, send more immigration judges down to the border to process some of these unaccompanied children that have arrived at the border, then that’s coming from some place else and we’re going to have to prioritize. That’s well within our authority authorities and discretion.

My preference would be an actual comprehensive immigration law, and we already have a bipartisan law that would solve a whole bunch of these problems. Until that happens, I’m going to have to make choices. That’s what I was elected to do.





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Offline aligncare

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2014, 05:13:03 pm »
Wonder why a center-right country can devolve so rapidly into socialism? Democrats have disproportionate power due to leftist control of information. Until there is a free flow of news and balanced opinion this will not change.

Offline alicewonders

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2014, 05:26:25 pm »
Wonder why a center-right country can devolve so rapidly into socialism? Democrats have disproportionate power due to leftist control of information. Until there is a free flow of news and balanced opinion this will not change.

So true AC.  The media is our biggest enemy.

Sigh...
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Offline GourmetDan

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2014, 05:29:57 pm »
The media is our biggest enemy.

Or... the people who control the media...


"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." - Ecclesiastes 10:2

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Online mountaineer

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2014, 05:45:05 pm »
Quote
OBAMA: Well, I think that I never have a green light. I’m bound by the Constitution. I’m bound by separation of powers. There’s some things we can’t do.  ...
And there you have a fine example of a would-be despot giving lip service to the Constitution, that ol' honkey-drafted piece of nothing he uses to wipe his scrawny butt.
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Offline truth_seeker

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2014, 07:35:35 pm »
Wonder why a center-right country can devolve so rapidly into socialism? Democrats have disproportionate power due to leftist control of information. Until there is a free flow of news and balanced opinion this will not change.
Or alternatively the "right" is so devoid of effective political leadership, that instead media figures "lead."

You know how conservatives flock to their own deep but narrow media entertainers, like Palin, Limbo etc?

The mainstream media is--closer to the middle of America, which is not where the narrow, deep political right inhabits.

While the center-left attempts to reach a majority, the right is forever stuck infighting, and giving the majority of voters reasons to reject the right.
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline musiclady

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2014, 08:39:39 pm »
Or alternatively the "right" is so devoid of effective political leadership, that instead media figures "lead."

You know how conservatives flock to their own deep but narrow media entertainers, like Palin, Limbo etc?

The mainstream media is--closer to the middle of America, which is not where the narrow, deep political right inhabits.

While the center-left attempts to reach a majority, the right is forever stuck infighting, and giving the majority of voters reasons to reject the right.

Isn't that what you're doing in this very post?  Your blanket accusations of all conservatives are unnecessary, and definitely not helpful.
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

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Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.

rangerrebew

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VIDEO: Jon Karl to Obama: 'Does It Bother You More' to Be Labeled an 'Imperial' or 'Do-Nothing' President?'
 
During the Question & Answer session following President Barack Obama's remarks on his recent summit with African leaders, ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl asked the president about rumors of executive action regarding immigration reform.

Karl referenced then-Candidate Obama's statements during the 2008 election when he criticized George W. Bush for 'bringing more power into the executive branch, and not going through Congress at all'. At the time, Obama pledged to 'reverse' that pattern.

Karl asked Obama whether the 'dysfunctional' Congress' inability to pass sufficient immigration reform legislation 'given [him] the green light' to 'push the limits of Executive power'.

"There are some things we just can't do [as president]," Obama replied, adding that he would 'love' to see a 'large infrastructure proposal right now to put millions of people back to work', but did not have the Constitutional 'power of the purse' that the Legislature has.

"Without the cooperation of Congress, I can still speed up the permitting process, for example" Obama said.

"I don't have a green light," he added, "What I am consistently going to do is, wherever I have the legal authorities to make progress... whether it's making sure Federal contractors are paying a fair wage... [or] expand some of the student loan programs, so that repayments are a little more affordable for college graduates, I'm going to seize those opportunities. And that's what I think the American people expect me to do."

He added that his 'preference' was to work with Congress, but cited 'Congressional inaction-- in particular on the part of House Republicans when it comes to immigration reform'.

"We actually passed a bill out of the Senate that was bipartisan. In those circumstances, what the American people expect is...there should at least be the capacity to move forward on things we agree on," Obama told Karl.

"In the face of that kind of dysfunction, what I can do is scour our authorities to try to make progress," Obama said, adding that any action on his part must indeed stay within the 'confines of executive power'.

http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/08/06/video-jon-karl-obama-does-it-bother-you-more-be-labeled-imperial-or-do-nothing-president
« Last Edit: August 08, 2014, 08:44:19 pm by rangerrebew »

Online mountaineer

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2014, 10:58:07 pm »
Some folks can make nothing but broad, sweeping generalizations, it seems.
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Offline truth_seeker

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2014, 10:58:48 pm »
Isn't that what you're doing in this very post?  Your blanket accusations of all conservatives are unnecessary, and definitely not helpful.
I am merely an observer, not a leader or media figure. As such it is fair to make comments on what I observe.

I am not the only one saying more or less the same thing.
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Offline musiclady

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #10 on: August 08, 2014, 11:12:11 pm »
I am merely an observer, not a leader or media figure. As such it is fair to make comments on what I observe.

I am not the only one saying more or less the same thing.

Just because others are doing it too doesn't make it right.

And it definitely is not helpful when you issue non-stop blanket accusations toward everyone who is more conservative than you are.

(Especially when your comments have absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand).
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.

Offline Formerly Once-Ler

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Re: ABC Yawns as Jon Karl Grills Obama: Are You an 'Imperial President?'
« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2014, 06:22:12 am »
Wonder why a center-right country can devolve so rapidly into socialism? Democrats have disproportionate power due to leftist control of information. Until there is a free flow of news and balanced opinion this will not change.

I'm not sure when the US was center-right, but The Road to Serfdom(1944) by Hayek explains how "creeping socialism" had gotten the US to the point of Roosevelt's New Deal and Truman's Fair Deal.

I agree that the left controls the media and the education systems.  Bust the unions and the education system gets better almost immediately.  Governors Walker and Kasich showed the way.  When we take back the White House President GOPe needs to sign an executive order banning Federal Government Unions.

As far as taking on the media the right has made incredible strides in disseminating our message.  We own talk radio.  We have a fair and balanced media in Fox News.  We have web blogs and portals, but we are getting left in the dust on the internet by Huffington Post, and CNN.  Much of talk radio just reads what the media writes.  They don't make the news.  I don't know why Limbaugh doesn't make a cable news station.  Just having that opportunity to ask questions directly to the politicians would be worth the entertainment value.  Somebody with money will come out with a news channel to the right of Fox and make a killing.  Conservatives love conservative news

I like what Glenn Beck and NewsMax are doing on cable.