Vice President Joe Biden Monday said he expects the president’s executive amnesty to do “an awful lot” if Republicans refuse to take up immigration reform during the lame duck session. Also on Monday House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the president's executive-amnesty delay implies he’ll “do it right” and take stronger action.
While hosting a Hispanic Heritage Month event at his residence, Biden said, “I know you’re all waiting and you’re frustrated. The president’s going to do it, and he’s going to do an awful lot…Watch when this election is over, watch what happens when all of a sudden our friends in the other team realize their prospects for future electoral success hinge upon acting rationally. They will either act rationally, or we will act for them. And if we have to act for them, they will not be around a whole lot longer to act in large numbers.” Biden added, “When this election [is] over in the lame duck session, they just may see the Lord. It is possible. But if they don’t, they will see some lightning.”
House Minority Leader Pelosi told reporters that she’s “respectful of the disappointment” over Obama’s postponed executive amnesty but noted “he said he’s going to do it better and that’s what I’m optimistic about… What he said was he wanted to do it right and so I think doing right means doing as much as possible.” She is "absolutely certain" Obama will act by the end of the year.
Pelosi questioned why some Latinos want to punish Obama and Democrats by not voting this year. She said if “(t)hey speak in this election, they will see results from the Republicans. But if they sit home, they won’t. The Republicans will say, 'we had no price to pay for our negligent policy toward immigrants' - not only negligent, negative.”
