Fox New anchor Neil Cavuto slammed Michele Bachmann Wednesday over her reasoning for suing President Obama and claims there was a conspiracy between the Obama administration and the IRS to leak NOM’s donor list.
Even Fox News has had enough of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto slammed the Tea Party Caucus founder Wednesday for her desire to sue President Barack Obama over his executive orders, and for her conspiracy theory claiming the Obama administration colluded with the IRS to leak the donor list of the National Organization For Marriage.
“I think you know in your heart of hearts this is a waste of time,” Cavuto told Bachmann. “There are far more important things that you guys have to be addressing than filing lawsuits past each other. Rome is burning and you’re filing!â€
That wasn’t Cavuto’s only complaint with Bachmann.
“You’ve been bemoaning it for a long time,” Cavuto said. “Why now the suit? Why not just fix things that are very, very wrong now rather than dragging someone to court over whether they overstepped their bounds? It just seems to me like an enormous waste of effort.â€
“Fix whatever’s wrong right now, rather than dragging the other side to court,” the exasperated Fox host instructed. “It just seems to me there’s so much wrong here, this finger pointing, we’re gonna drag your ass to court, we’re gonna do this. Just do something!”
But things got really hot when Rep. Bachmann introduced her idea of defunding the executive branch for what she claimed was Obama’s collusion with the IRS to expose NOM’s funders. That claim is not only false, but really ridiculous — as if Obama has even heard of the National Organization For Marriage. (A federal court found that the “leaking” of NOM’s door list was a simple mistake by an IRS employee who forgot to redact the information from a Freedom of Information request made by an employee of a company tied to Mitt Romney.)
“Where was your rage when Democrats were going after President Bush on the same use of executive orders?,” Cavuto asked. “Because I think you knew then that was a waste of time then and I think you know in your heart of hearts this is a waste of time now.”
And then, another slam. “Defund the executive branch?!,” Cavuto exclaimed. “Defund?! Think about what you’re saying. ‘Defund the executive branch.’ If Democrats… Congresswoman! If Democrats had said to you we’re going to defund President Bush, we’re gonna defund the executive — you would’ve laughed ‘em out. I think Democrats would be in their right mind to laugh you out now.”
A surprised Michele Bachmann tried to take credit for holding the president accountable, but Cavuto wasn’t going to have it.
“This president is not a king and the Congress needs to stand up,” Bachmann said. “You’re being silly,” Cavuto answered. “Filing lawsuits while Rome is burning.”
Watch:
Think Progress notes that since February, “Obama had issued fewer executive orders than all but one of the other presidents since World War II. Republicans, meanwhile routinely embraced the power of Republican president George W. Bush to take action, even at times when he would circumvent Congress by doing so.”
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