Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) once claimed that he “never voted for a [government] shutdown and never will.” But Issa is so angry the FBI recommended Hillary Clinton not be indicted for using a private server for her email that he suggested on Wednesday that he is rethinking his promise. He proposed that now might be a good time for the Republican leadership to shut down the federal government, in protest of what he called “an imperial president” who will not “enforce criminal charges against a criminal.”
In an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily, Issa blasted FBI Director James Comey’s decision as “simply choosing to ignore a law.”
“We should be willing to shut down the government if the president won’t limit his power,” he said, noting that his party had repeatedly been “willing to shut down the government over ending Obamacare and these other things.” Those things, according to Issa, are “small points compared to the actual balance of our republic.”
Issa said the leadership would agree to a shutdown only if there was a clear example, like this, where “we cannot enforce criminal charges against a criminal… because the people responsible are simply choosing to ignore a law.”
While he said it is “not about Hillary Clinton,” he suggested that because “we can’t get to the courts,” in this case and others, “only have one piece of power, and that’s an imperial president.” He suggested that Congress should expand the power of independent counsels because, “otherwise Lois Lerner gets a free pass, Eric Holder gets a free pass, and yes, Hillary Clinton gets a free pass.”
Listen to the audio:
In the same interview, Issa warned that, if elected, Clinton would simply pardon herself for the alleged crimes for which she was not charged.
Issa was reportedly arrested in 1972 for auto theft and weapons violations. No charges were brought against him.