Hoyer Discusses President Obama's Meeting with Congressional Leadership on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews"

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) appeared on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" this evening to discuss President Obama's meeting with Congressional leadership. Below are excerpts from the interview and a link to the video.

Click here to watch the video.

On the President's Meeting with Congressional Leaders

"I think what got done was an expression by both sides that the American people are pretty fed up with the dysfunction in the Congress of the United States and the inability of their Board of Directors to act effectively and work together. I think that was agreed upon. Were there differences? There were, but I think there are many things on which we can agree. The president talked about addressing the Ebola crisis in Africa and the United States, and I think there's agreement on wanting to do that. I think there's agreement on moving ahead with an omnibus and trying to get that done before December 11th. I think there's agreement that we need to cooperate. Now are there differences of opinion? There are differences of opinion. As you know, immigration is still a sticking point. The Senate passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill through the United States Senate almost 18 months ago, and notwithstanding the fact that everybody agrees the system is broken, the immigration system is broken, the House has not acted, and we haven't even considered legislation, whether it was Republican legislation, or the Senate bill, or Democratic legislation."

"I think the President believes he needs to act as he said he would, to stop what he believes is the wrenching apart of families, leaving children without a parent, or parents, and a system that, as I said, everybody agrees is broken. What the President said is, and what the President said publicly is that, 'look, whatever action I take, I would much prefer to have a bill passed by the Congress of the United States.' The Speaker made it very clear, as he has publicly in the past, that he is for immigration reform, and the President pointed out that if [the House passes] a bill, [that] bill will supersede whatever [he does]. My urging, Chris, to the Speaker and to [Senator] McConnell and to our Republican and Democratic colleagues, that we not allow a disagreement on one area to preclude cooperation on areas where we have agreement. That would be bad for the country, and it would be compounding the frustration and the anger that the American people feel about the Congress of the United States."