Rep. Tom Cole: President Being 'Cynical' With Immigration Executive Action Plan

Nov. 16, 2014 — -- Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla, today called President Obama "political" and "cynical" and said he was trying to "pick a fight" with his plan to take executive action on immigration in the coming days.

"He had plenty of opportunity to do things when he had complete Democratic control ... so it's been a political weapon rather than a problem to be solved in my view from the president's standpoint," Cole said during an interview on "This Week."

"I think he's actually trying to bait us into doing some of these extreme things," he added later in the interview.

During the interview, Cole dismissed the idea of shutting down the government in response to executive action by the president on immigration.

"It's an inappropriate weapon, inappropriate tool," he said.

The president is expected to take executive action -- which could happen as soon as Friday -- in an effort to reform the immigration system before the end of the year. For their part, the Republican leadership in Congress has warned Obama against any such action.

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"When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself," House Speaker John Boehner said earlier this month.

Appearing on "This Week" with Cole was Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who expressed frustration over what he argued was the GOP's refusal to compromise to reform the "broken" immigration system and told ABC's Martha Raddatz why he felt executive action was necessary.

"Millions of Americans families are depending on the president fixing a broken immigration system," Gutierrez said.

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