Jason Chaffetz Quotes
I'm not going to go on this fishing expedition that they want me to, that the Democrats want me to, the president has a duty and obligation to comply with the law. But again he's exempt from almost all of these things.
Chaffetz, Jason. Interview by George Stephanopoulos. This Week, ABC News, 15 Jan. 2017.
The debate was about the unlimited pardon power of the President. Madison argued that the check was the impeachment power. However, Presidents had tended to make large numbers of pardons just before they leave office so the impeachment power works only as a check for the beginning and middle part of their term.
The issue had first arisen during the Watergate Scandal, where there was concern that if the House held impeachment hearings of President Nixon, he might refuse to provide documents or order others in the Executive Branch not to testify. In this hearing, they were discussing the possible impeachment of President George W. Bush.
Alberto Gonzalez, White House Counsel and later Attorney General who was forced to resign and David S. Addington, Counsel to the Vice President, had come up with a novel view of the powers of the presidency. They argued that since the President is the Commander in Chief, in a war situation or intelligence gathering thereto, has the Constitutional responsibility for that function, he need not obey any laws of Congress as in the conduct of the war Congress would be impinging on the Constitutional separation of powers which itself was prohibited by the Constitution. The argument did not find any significant legal support but for a while the George W. Bush White House behaved as if this were the law, despite the fact that even in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 Congress passed laws regulating the conduct of the armed forces as is provided for in other parts of the Constitution. Yet even Goldsmith would allow the President some powers that many think are unconstitutional and/or belong to Congress. See {32436}.
The Republican controlled Senate whose Judiciary Committee and voted overwhelmingly for the President’s nominee for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, but the Senate Republicans refused to the nomination up for a vote unless the Democrats and the President would agree to add an abortion ban on money that was to be appropriated for assistance to trafficked and sexually exploited women and girls. Never before had a nomination like this have been subject to this type of blackmail over terms of legislation on a matter that had nothing to do with the nominee or the cabinet position. However, this was the time one of the extreme periods of hyper partisanship in American History.
Jason E. Chaffetz is an American retired politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Utah's 3rd congressional district from 2009 until his retirement in 2017. He chaired the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2015 until 2017.
