Political strategist Karl Rove accuses President Barack Obama of using his executive authority to pursue his goal of re-election and blaming everything that’s wrong with his administration on Republicans.
“This is just pathetic,” Rove said, suggesting the president would likely blame Republicans as well if the Supreme Court ruling Thursday on Obamacare strikes down the mandate requiring all Americans to obtain health insurance.
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Rove also told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Wednesday that Obama’s claim of executive privilege in the Fast and Furious gun-tracking controversy is simply an attempt to distract the American public away from his failures as the nation’s leader.
“This White House is doing everything it can to turn everything into politics so it doesn't have to talk about jobs, economy, the deficit, debt spending and the Affordable Care Act,” said Rove, a GOP consultant and Fox News contributor.
Rove said the administration is obviously trying to “stonewall” the congressional investigation of Fast and Furious, and the vote scheduled Thursday in the House, on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to turn over documents in the case.
“This is a pretty big stretch for executive privilege. If the President was not privy and not party to these discussions, if it didn’t touch the White House, then why is he asserting a privilege that is, you know, that is rarely and only with great, you know, sort of reluctance offered by presidents of the United States?” Rove said.
“I think it’s all because of politics. He would rather be talking about this than be talking about the lousy economy,” he continued. “And he would rather have a fight, which he feels he’s got a chance to depict the Republicans as out of touch, rather than a fight he knows he is going to lose, which is to say, ‘Hey, I’ve done a great job with the economy, re-elect me because of it.’”
Returning to the legal fight over Obamacare, Rove said he found it interesting that the White House now claims the mandate included in the law was really a Republican idea that was part of the Massachusetts healthcare law that Mitt Romney pushed through when he was governor.
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Rove reminded Hannity viewers that Obama “eviscerated Hillary Clinton in speeches, television ads, and debates over the so-called individual mandate” in her own healthcare proposal during the 2008 presidential campaign.
“Then when he got into the office, [Obama] flip-flopped and made it the centerpiece of his healthcare reform,” Rove said, adding: This White House is so bereft of integrity that they have to blame everything on somebody else.”
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