Wayne LaPierre Quotes

Every time a president invokes executive privilege, there are three relevant audiences he has to think about: the courts, Congress, and the public.

In the end, the responsibility of government abuse lies with the president.

We cannot continue to claim that we are a nation of laws and not of men if our laws and, indeed, even the Constitution of the United States itself, may be summarily breached because of some determination of expediency or because the President says “trust me.”

Obama must scrutinize and disassemble the post-Sept. 11 imperial presidency, even if he reduces his own power in the process.

The Obama administration demonstrated time and again a disturbing willingness to bypass the separation of powers and disregard Congress as a Constitutional watchdog.

Rule of law has prevailed over Obama's unconstitutional executive overreach.

Congress could always stop the President if Congress thinks that what the President has done exceeds the President's authority or is just wrong for the United States.

Hoover was a patriot in his heart, but he definitely exceeded his power.

As a member of Congress, I believe Congress must provide oversight of actions by the Executive Branch as our system of checks and balances requires.

The laws have become so straight-jacketing that presidents and their aides dare not keep journals or diaries, lest they be subpoenaed by avid special prosecutors.

I suppose this [Watergate] is an example of the dangers of letting down your guard against increased executive powers–no matter what the circumstances. Not that the danger was not real, but in this case the risk of the remedy was as great as the disease. There was a willingness to accept without challenge the Executive's claim to increased power. That's why we acted as we did, and it was a mistake.

The government itself is — and should be — accountable when its officials run amok.

The war had been unnecessarily and unconstitutionally initiated by the president.

It is not the Congress's job to rubber stamp bad decisions [of the President.]

We, as a Congress, have to stand up to a president who acts like the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were repealed on September 11.

Impeachment of the Chief Executive is essential to avoid political assassination when the Executive has rendered himself obnoxious

By Congress delegating its authority to the executive and judicial branches, we've removed the American people from the process. They're left as bystanders to the whims of executive overreach, and they're watching the country they know and love slip away. Worse, they think their representatives are powerless to stop it.

I think Congress can pass a bill when the American people start regaining trust in the administration to actually do their job and enforce the laws that are already on the books.

Beginning with the Clinton Administration and rapidly accelerating with the George W. Bush and Obama regimes and Tony Blair in England, the U.S. and U.K. governments have run roughshod over their accountability to law.

Freedom rests on a rational distrust of government; government will always use its power to benefit the incumbent administration.

Time and time again, the Obama Administration has shown the American people it's willing to abuse the power of the Oval Office. Congress should absolutely not relinquish more power.

The president is now having to deal with a Congress. He's never had to do that before. The president in the past, he has just done whatever he wanted. He had a big rubberstamp here up on Capitol Hill, whatever he wanted, they stamped OK. That's not the way it is now.

I was very, very concerned about President Obama and how much executive order and how much executive power he tried to exert. But I think I want to be, and I think congress will be, a check on any executive, Republican or Democrat, that tries to grasp too much power. And really, a lot of the fault is not only presidents trying to take too much power, it's Congress giving up too much power.

I take the Constitution very seriously. The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with [the president] trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm President of the United States of America.

My fellow citizens, the American Presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery.