The Obama administration is not discounting the possibility that House Republicans could pursue impeachment of the president, Senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer told reporters Friday, the Associated Press reports.
“I saw a poll today that had a huge portion of the Republican Party base saying they supported impeaching the president. A lot of people in this town laugh that off. I would not discount that possibility,” he told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, according to The Hill.
He said that a decision by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to file a lawsuit against Obama over his executive actions increases the chances of impeachment proceedings, The Hill writes.
Further, he predicted that any executive action signed by the president to block the deportations of illegal immigrants who have strong ties to the United States could increase “the likelihood” of Republicans pursuing impeachment, the AP writes.
In the past, President Obama has dismissed the threats as lacking merit.
“You hear some of them: ‘Sue him! Impeach him!’ ” Obama said in Austin, Texas, recently, The Hill reports. “Really? For what, doing my job?”
Read more at the Washington Post and The Hill.