Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., said yesterday that the U.S. needs to look at “the people that are here that shouldn’t be here” and “if they have a Middle Eastern background that we can’t verify, they need to be out of the country.”
Yoho did not specify what he meant by people who “shouldn’t be here” or what the verification process would be in his comments, which he made during an interview on “The Palin Update,” a radio show hosted by Sarah Palin enthusiasts.
“If you look at what the role of the federal government is, its number-one role is to provide for the common defense of the United States of America,” he said. “And we need to look at securing our border, we need to look at enforcing the laws on the books. The people that are here that shouldn’t be here, we need to have a way of vetting and screening them. If they have a Middle Eastern background that we can’t verify, they need to be out of the country.”
He added that the U.S. should put a “pause” on the resettlement of refugees from Middle Eastern countries.
Yoho also lashed out at President Obama for his defense of refugees, saying, “He accuses the Republicans of being afraid of women and children. I’m concerned about women and children, and those are the women and children in my country, my wife, my daughters, your children, your families. We should be concerned about that before we worry about somebody else.”
Later in the interview, the program’s host, Kevin Scholla, asked Yoho if it is “too late” for Congress to impeach President Obama, which Yoho said it certainly is not.
“Man, I tell you what, I can’t thank you for bringing that subject up,” he said. “No, I don’t think it’s too late.”
He touted a bill he wrote that would define what constitute impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanors” in order to “show the borders of the football field so that the executive, the Supreme Court justices and everybody in Washington and government knows where the boundaries are and if you step outside of that you’re going to be penalized.”
He added that his constituents are “clamoring” for impeachment.
