Obama About Face on Immigration Reform
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Speaking of the president, another sensitive issue, immigration reform. The president saying if the Congress by the end of this year doesn't engage in significant reform, he's going to do it on his own, even though the Republicans say that would be a violation of the Constitution. He can't do it. He does not have legal authority. And now, read "The New York Times" story earlier today, several examples of the president himself in recent years saying he can't do this on his own, including this clip from back in 2011.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply, through executive order, ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.</s>BLITZER: He was speaking on Univision, the Spanish television network, at the time, explaining why he can't do it on his own. Another occasion he said, I'm the president of the United States, I'm not the emperor of the United States. But now he says he's going to do --</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Now he's the emperor.</s>BLITZER: But he earlier said he shouldn't do it.</s>BORGER: He was against it before he was for it, Wolf. He used it to explain to Hispanic groups who were saying, why don't you do something by some kind of executive order, saying, no, no, no, I can't do it, because he wanted something to pass through the Congress. Now that he knows that nothing is going to pass through the Congress at this point -- don't forget the Senate passed a bill. In the House, the bill went nowhere -- he's decided he has 26 months left in his presidency that he's going to do exactly what he said he was not going to do. And I think, again, if you look at the larger picture here, this is a president who is saying to a Republican Congress, OK, dare me, I'm going to do it. And it's going to create a situation in which Republicans are going to have to decide, as they run the House and the Senate, whether they can compartmentalize and actually work with the president on, say, tax reform and trade and not work with him on immigration or whether it's all going to blow up. And we just don't know at this point how it's going to play out.</s>BLITZER: It could play out by the end of this week, they say, if the president decides to do what he earlier said he shouldn't do.</s>BORGER: And you do have that "hell, no" caucus who would be saying to their leadership in the Republican Party, let's shut down the government.</s>BLITZER: I don't think they'll shut down the government.</s>BORGER: Stranger things have happened.</s>BLITZER: Let's see if it passes. I'd be surprised if they make that mistake again. Gloria, thanks very much. Still ahead, the National Guard called in, a state of emergency declared. Unease is growing in Ferguson, Missouri, ahead of the pending grand jury decision. And we'll get back to our top story, that horrible terror attack in a synagogue in Jerusalem. We'll go live to bring you the update on what's going on.