With the end of his second term drawing near, President Obama has only a short amount of time to make good on his long time promise to close Guantanamo Bay. The good news? He seems dead-set on doing it, whether Congress likes it or not.
The Chief of Staff addressed the issue on “Fox News Sunday,” alluding to the possibility of executive action if reasoable actions are met with the kind of stubbornness Obama has become accustomed to when dealing with Congress.
“The president just said he’s going to present a plan to Congress and work with Congress and then we’ll make some final determination,” he claimed.
Following The president’s December assertion that “We will wait until Congress has definitively said no to a well-thought-out plan with numbers attached to it before we say anything definitively about my executive authority here,” Obama said in his final 2015 press conference that he would not rule out using his power to bypass Congress on this issue, but would prefer to work with them if possible.
Though he admits that he’s had a tough time working with them in the past, the president reminded reporters that “we keep on surprising you by actually getting some stuff done.”
In the best of cases, Obama won’t have to exercise his presidential authority to stay true to his word and close down the atrocity that is Guantanamo Bay, but if it comes to that, no arguments here.
