Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told
Newsmax TV on Friday that if President Barack Obama implemented a plan to require background checks on some gun sales by executive order and without congressional approval, the House should consider impeachment proceedings.
"The very fact that you might bring it before the Judiciary Committee and investigate it and determine whether it's an impeachable offense is a very healthy thing to do," DeLay, the Texas Republican who served in the position from 2003 to 2005, told "Newsmax Prime" in an interview.
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Earlier this month,
The Washington Post reported that Obama was considering circumventing Congress and imposing an executive order requiring high-volume gun dealers to perform background checks on their buyers.
Obama was weighing the move after the Oct. 1 shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore.
Nine people were killed and nine others were injured in the attack by Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, who asked people to state their religion after bursting into a classroom shortly after 10:30 a.m.
If a student said that they were a Christian, Harper-Mercer shot them. He later killed himself in a gun battle with police.
DeLay, 68, who also served as Majority Whip, says Congress needs to stand strong against Obama on any such unilateral action.
"The House needs to use its power of hearings to start letting the American people know that this is a lawless president, we have a lawless Supreme Court — and the judiciary needs to step up and show the American people what this president is doing, which will support any other efforts to defund the president."
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