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Dr. Brantly joins Obama to encourage Ebola volunteers in West Africa, tamp down calls for quarantines and travel bans

Medical professionals in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea "have fought a valiant effort against this menace," Dr. Kent Brantly said, but more are "desperately needed."

Medical professionals in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea "have fought with valiant effort against this menace," Dr. Kent Brantly said, but more are "desperately needed." (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press)

updated with comments from NJ Gov. Chris Christie

WASHINGTON – Dr. Kent Brantly, the Fort Worth doctor who became the first American to contract Ebola in treating patients in West Africa, starred at a White House event meant to put a spotlight on the need for health care workers to volunteer to fight the outbreak.

The medical professionals of the three nations battling Ebola – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – “have fought with valiant effort against this menace,” Brantly said, introducing President Obama. “More medical professional are desperately needed.”

Obama warned that the United States “can’t hermetically seal ourselves off” from the rest of the world. He urged the public and state leaders to set aside fear — a term he invoked four times in 15 minutes, in pointed remarks aimed at displaying displeasure with state-level efforts to quarantine nurses and doctors returning from the Ebola hot zone.

“If we’re discouraging our health care workers who are prepared to make these sacrifices … then we’re not doing our job” in terms of protecting Americans, Obama asserted. “What we need right now is these shock troops who are out there leading globally. We can’t discourage that. We’ve got to encourage it and applaud it.”

Behind the scenes, the White House pressured governors in New Jersey and New York to ease policies regarding returning health care workers.

Several hundred guests filled seats in the ornate East Room of the White House.

Obama warned against reacting to fear, hysteria or misinformation. One reason the world looks to America, he said, is because of its cool- headed response to a crisis.

The president was flanked by doctors and other health workers, many in white lab coats.

Brantly’s wife, Amber, sat in the front row, and Obama joked that her husband had gained some weight since the last time he was at the White House more than a month ago, shortly after recovering from his own bout with Ebola.

“Each of you studied medicine because you wanted to save lives. The world needs you more than ever,” the president said.

The health care workers serving in Africa, Obama said, are a “shining example” to the world. And he vowed that with ongoing efforts, international efforts will “contain and ultimately snuff out this outbreak of Ebola.”

“I know that with all the headlines and all the news, that people are scared. … But the reason I’m so proud of this country is because when there are times for us to step up and do the right thing, we do the right thing,” Obama said,

With indirect language, he needled and mocked critics — including many political conservatives — who speak of “exceptionalism” but then promote policies such as travel bans and quarantines. These, he said, amount, to pretending the problem will go away.

“When I hear people talking about American leadership, and then are promoting policies that would avoid leadership and have us running in the opposite direction and hiding under the covers, it makes me a little frustrated,” he said.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie, head of the Republican Governors Association and a possible 2016 White House contender, blasted Obama for issuing “lectures.”

He called it “common sense” to isolate health workers returning from working with Ebola patients in West Africa for the full 21-day incubation period.

“This is our policy. It will be our policy as long as this crisis is going on,” he told reporters. “I don’t know when the White House is going to get around to admitting that and not giving us seven-minute lectures from the South Lawn.”

And he took issue with the idea that quarantines will discourage volunteers.

“It’s part of the sacrifice. I’m sure none of these folks want to come home and get anybody else sick… Folks should understand. Part of the sacrifice is going over there and the remainder of the sacrifice is when you come home,” remaining quarantined for three weeks, Christie said.

Brantly is medical missions director for Samaritan’s Purse. He contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, and was the first person treated for Ebola in the United States. He has donated blood plasma to other patients since being cured at Emory University Hospital.

The group behind the president included doctors and others who either have worked against Ebola in West Africa or plan to travel there soon. Doctors and nurses who treated Dallas nurse Nina Pham at NIH were also on stage and in the audience, along with healthcare workers from a variety of nonprofit groups and others.

The president’s new “Ebola czar,” Ron Klain, was on hand, along with a Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health and a number of top White House aides, including homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

Now Ebola-free, Pham gets a hug from Obama at the White House

President Obama gives a hug to Dallas nurse Nina Pham in the Oval Office on Oct. 24. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Hours after being declared Ebola-free, Dallas nurse Nina Pham got a hug from President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.

Pham met with Obama on Friday afternoon and is scheduled to return to Dallas later today. This morning, she was discharged from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., where she has been in isolation since Oct. 16.

“I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today,” Pham told reporters at NIH, flanked by her sister and mother.

Pham walks alongside Anthony Fauci of the NIH at the White House. (Kimberly Railey/The Dallas Morning News)

Her sister, Catherine, and mother, Diana, joined her at the White House. They sat next to Pham on a couch in the Oval Office, across from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH.

Also present were Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Pham’s primary doctor Dr. Richard Davey Jr., and Dr. Cliff Lane of the NIH.

Pham beamed when Obama hugged her, as photojournalists captured the moment.

Afterward, Pham was smiling and appeared in good spirits. The 26-year-old was the first American nurse to contract Ebola on U.S. soil.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said no special precautions were needed or taken, because her doctors had given her a “clean bill of health.”

Ebola: President Obama speaks with Dallas healthcare workers

Cole Edmonson, chief nursing officer at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, speaks to President Obama, who called from The White House to offer words of encouragement and support to a team of caregivers today. (photo courtesy Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama today spoke with several “frontline healthcare workers” at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, including some who cared for Ebola patients.

“The President thanked the healthcare workers for their unflagging dedication and for their tireless efforts to treat these patients despite the difficult conditions,” according to a White House aide. “More broadly, he also noted that our nation’s doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and other healthcare staff work long hours under stressful conditions, and are absolutely indispensable.”

Two nurses from Presbyterian Hospital are being treated for Ebola, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Both had treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian who died of Ebola on Oct. 8.

Seen through the window of the Oval Office, President Obama gets an update on Ebola in Dallas from Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Oct. 12. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The president will meet later this afternoon with his new Ebola “czar,” Ron Klain. But meanwhile, he wanted to reach out to Dallas healthcare workers.

“He offered his personal thanks to this group on behalf of a grateful nation,” the aide said.

Obama assures Gov. Perry that Texas will get whatever help it needs

President Obama points toward Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as he speaks about the government’s Ebola response in the Oval Office Thursday night. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON – President Obama said Thursday night that he spoke today with Gov. Rick Perry, assuring him that Texas and Dallas will have the resources needed to deal with Ebola, especially if more cases erupt.

He ruled out a travel ban on West Africa but said he would reconsider if infectious disease experts change their view on the idea.

“I don’t have a philosophical objection … if that is the thing that is going to keep the American public safe,” he told reporters after a lengthy Oval Office meeting with top advisers on the Ebola crisis.

He noted that with Amber Vinson at Emory University Hospital and fellow nurse Nina Pham heading tonight to the National Institutes of Health, “they are getting the best possible care.”

“Our heartfelt concern goes out to the two nurses… They courageously treated Mr. Duncan when he was in Dallas,” he said.

Obama noted that other health care workers at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas are undergoing “constant monitoring.”

“We remain focused on the situation at Texas Presbyterian in Dallas,” the president said, adding that there “may have been problems in how protective gear was worn or removed” at the hospital.

And he discussed concerns about Vinson’s travel from Dallas to Cleveland and back shortly before her diagnosis. She had a low-grade fever on the flight back to Dallas.

“It’s very important for us to make sure that we are monitoring and tracking anyone who was in close proximity to this second nurse… to ensure there is not additional spread of the disease,” he said.

He also spoke about the situation with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, he said.

As for the travel ban, he said, the problem is that travelers from West Africa might try to hide their travel history and evade screening.

“We could end up having more cases rather than less,” he said. But he’ll keep demanding refinements in policy from his advisers and “if they come back to me and say that there are some additional things that we need to do, I assure you that we will do it.”

For now, he said, “A flat out travel ban is not the best way to go.”

Obama also said he may appoint a so-called Ebola “czar” to take some pressure off national security and public health aides with other duties.

He offered assurances that while health workers who deal with Ebola patients face escalated risk, the public does not.

“The risks involved remain relatively low – extremely low – for ordinary folks,” he said.

Obama confident the US won’t see “serious outbreak” of Ebola

President Obama speaks to the media about Ebola during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Wednesday. From left: Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON – President Obama vowed a more “aggressive” federal response to the spread of Ebola in the United States. And he offered assurance tonight that a “serious outbreak” remains extremely unlikely.

“I want people to understand that the dangers of you contracting Ebola, the dangers of a serious outbreak, are extraordinarily low,” he said after meeting with Cabinet members and other top aides. “But we are taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government.”

That assurance that a “serious” outbreak is unlikely is markedly less optimistic than the one Obama offered only a week earlier in a call with governors and mayors across the country, when he said that “the chance of an Ebola outbreak in the United States remains extremely low.”

As for health care workers in Dallas, “we understand that many of them are scared,” the president said tonight.

He called it essential to continue fighting the outbreak where it is worst, in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, even as the United States girds for spread of the deadly virus at home.

“I am absolutely confident that we can prevent a serious outbreak of the disease here in the United States,” he said, but “the single most important thing that we can do to prevent a more serious Ebola outbreak in this country is making sure that we get what is a raging epidemic right now in West Africa under control.”

The president didn’t directly address escalating demands for a ban on travelers from the afflicted region. But he reiterated that working to control the oubreak in West Africa is a good investment because otherwise, “it will spread globally in an age of frequent travel and the kind of constant interactions that people have across borders.”

Nor did he mention the possibility of a “no fly” list to ensure that people with a known potential exposure – such as the Dallas nurse who flew from Cleveland to Dallas less than two days before confirmation that she had contracted Ebola – stay off commercial flights.

An administration official noted that the Department of Homeland Security has authority to operate a public “Do Not Board” list to bar travelers within, or arriving in or leaving the United States. CDC officials say such a list is under consideration.

Obama acknowledged concern that the second nurse flew a commercial airliner on Monday from Cleveland to Dallas, shortly before she spiked a fever and was confirmed to have Ebola. But he said, “It is not like the flu. It is not airborne.”

The president said he has ordered CDC to provide a rapid response or “Swat team” on the ground within 24 hours, any place Ebola crops up in the United States. That, in part, is a response to shortcomings in Dallas, where Texas Health Systems Presbyterian Hospital initially sent home Thomas Eric Duncan with a high fever; he died Ebola a week ago, and two of his nurses ended up contracting the disease.

Going forward, Obama said, “We are monitoring, supervising, overseeing in a much more aggressive way exactly what’s taken place in Dallas.”

He has ordered a full scale review of how Duncan was treated, “so that we understand where some of the problems may have occurred, and doing a thorough canvass and inventory of anyone involved in caring for Duncan.”

Lessons have been and will be communicated to doctors, nurses, hospitals and clinics across the country, he said.

He said the White House is working closely with the mayor of Dallas, the governor of Texas and others to ensure that anyone with Ebola is cared for “in a way that is consistent with public safety.”

The meeting participants, according to the White House, included Vice President Biden and the heads of eight Cabinet departments and much of the president’s national security team. List follows:

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Obama wants better anti-Ebola steps, speedy inquiry into protocol breach at Dallas hospital

Seen through the window of his Oval Office, President Barack Obama talks with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell for an update on the new Ebola virus diagnosis in Dallas on Sunday afternoon. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

updated at 12:30 with details from the White House

WASHINGTON — President Obama has ordered additional federal steps to help hospitals halt Ebola, and wants an expedited report into a breach of protocol that led to a second infection.

He got an update on the Ebola situation this afternoon from Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell.

This morning, the president was briefed on the diagnosis of a second Ebola patient in Dallas by his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, Lisa Monaco. By phone this afternoon, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell updated him on the response to the diagnosis.

According to the White House, the president directed Burwell to take several steps.

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) investigation into the apparent breach in infection control protocols at the Dallas hospital move as expeditiously as possible;
  • The additional officers CDC has dispatched to Dallas work closely with state and local authorities as well as hospital staff to review infection control procedures and the use of personal protective equipment;
  • Lessons learned from that inquiry are shared quickly and broadly; and,
  • Federal authorities take immediate additional steps to ensure hospitals and healthcare providers nationwide are prepared to follow protocols should they encounter an Ebola patient.

A small group of reporters on duty at the White House were briefly allowed to photograph the president on the phone through the windows of the Oval Office.

The press pool had been loaded into vans, preparing for a presidential golf outing on this clear, crisp Sunday, when they were unexpectedly brought back to the briefing room to witness the call.

After the call with Burwell, Obama motorcaded to Fort Belvoir, south of Washington, for a round of golf with three White House aides: Joe Paulsen, deputy political director; Mike Brush, director of advance; and Marvin Nicholson, travel director.

MORE EBOLA COVERAGE

Dallas hospital worker tests positive for Ebola; complex decontaminated

Residents who live near the apartment building on Marquita Avenue said they were concerned and worried about their neighbor after finding information about the infection on their doorsteps Sunday morning.

 

 

Obama thanks Jenkins and Rawlings, reiterates need to stick to Ebola protocols

Update 5:30 pm from Tom Benning:

The conference call lasted around an hour, with about half that time devoted to questions from the state and local officials on the line. Rawlings described the call as “pretty pro-forma,” as myriad federal officials laid out their latest plans.

The mayor said Obama was “very sober, but very confident” that the US medical infrastructure will stop the spread.

Rawlings added that Obama was “very generous in his compliments of the Dallas area, the city and county.”

The mayor was given the opportunity to ask the first question in the Q-and-A session.

Rawlings, in an interview, said he and other Dallas-area officials have been grappling with the experience of harmonizing the protocols and missions of various agencies. He said there’s been a learning period in sorting out who exactly is accountable for what.

“We have a much better understanding of it a week into it than we did at the very beginning,” he said.

So Rawlings asked what should be done to standardize those protocols going forward.

Frieden, the CDC director, said Dallas’ emergency operation center was a great example, according to the mayor. And while there weren’t marching orders for Dallas officials to start compiling a list, Rawlings said “everybody realized that we have to transfer that learning from Dallas to other places.”

“We need to capture those processes and disciplines,” the mayor said.

Original post:
WASHINGTON — President Obama spoke with state and local officials across the country today by conference call to update them on the Ebola control effort.

“As we saw in Dallas, we don’t have a lot of margin for error.  If we don’t follow protocols and procedures that are put in place, then we’re putting folks in our communities at risk,” he said. He was referring to the fact that Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died this morning at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, was initially sent away with antibiotics after showing up with a fever and telling medical personnel that he’d arrived from Liberia a few days earlier.

“We have to follow the procedures and protocols that have been established based on the science,” Obama said.

Some 1,200 state and local officials participated in the call. The president thanked Dallas leaders for their handling of the Ebola situation.

“I want to thank Mayor [Mike] Rawlings and County Judge Clay Jenkins in Dallas for their cooperation with our team and their leadership on the ground.  We’re going to make sure that lessons learned in Dallas and clear procedures and protocols for health and safety officials are conveyed to all of you,” he said on the call, according to a transcript released by the White House. (Obama made no mention of Gov. Rick Perry.)

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then briefed the state and local officials about preparations to handle a wider outbreak. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson also was on the call, along with senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and Lisa Monaco, the president’s top homeland security and counterterrorism adviser.

Obama called the new screening measures at the five U.S. airports that handle the vast majority of travelers from West Africa “really just belt-and-suspenders — it’s an added layer of protection on top of the procedures already in place at several airports” to identify anyone who might be contagious with Ebola.

“For the governors and the mayors and the county officials on the line,” Obama said, “I’ve instructed my teams to do whatever federal assistance they can to make sure you’re ready to respond should someone be diagnosed with Ebola in your state.  We’re going to have to be partners in this fight.”

Obama briefed on Dallas Ebola case; saw “extremely low” chance virus would reach US

President Obama talks on the phone Tuesday afternoon with Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the Oval Office. Dr. Frieden updated the president on the recently-diagnosed Ebola case in Dallas. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

WASHINGTON — The Ebola case in Dallas — the first ever in the United States — has the president’s attention.

President Barack Obama was briefed this afternoon on the case by Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The President and Director Frieden discussed the stringent isolation protocols under which the patient is being treated as well as ongoing efforts to trace the patient’s contacts to mitigate the risk of additional cases,” the White House said this evening. “Dr. Frieden noted that the CDC had been prepared for an Ebola case in the United States, and that we have the infrastructure in place to respond safely and effectively.”

Obama visited CDC headquarters in Atlanta on Sept. 16 for briefings on the Ebola outbreak.

“Our experts here at the CDC and across our government agree that the chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low. We’ve been taking the necessary precautions, including working with countries in West Africa to increase screening at airports so that someone with the virus doesn’t get on a plane for the United States,” the president said at that time.

But the Dallas patient made it past that screening. Frieden said at tonight’s news conference in Atlanta that he showed no symptoms for days after his flight from Liberia to the United States and therefore posed “zero risk” to fellow passengers, because Ebola can only be transmitted when someone is actively ill.

During his visit to Atlanta two weeks ago, the president offered assurances that the outbreak could be contained.

“In the unlikely event that someone with Ebola does reach our shores,” he said, “we’ve taken new measures so that we’re prepared here at home. We’re working to help flight crews identify people who are sick and more labs across our country now have the capacity to quickly test for the virus. We’re working with hospitals to make sure that they are prepared and to ensure that our doctors, our nurses and our medical staff are trained, are ready, and are able to deal with a possible case safely.”

On immigration, Cornyn sees focus on border security in GOP-run Senate

Sen. John Cornyn at a Senate hearing Nov. 6, 2013. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON –Republicans will remain focused on a security-first approach to immigration if they win control of the Senate, Sen. John Cornyn said Monday.

“Our Democrat friends want to eat dessert before they eat their vegetables on immigration. I just don’t think that’s going to work,” he said.

Cornyn spent an hour with The Dallas Morning News editorial board earlier today. Video clips posted here.

He warned that President Barack Obama would be unwise to issue any sweeping immigration policies using executive authority.

“I just can’t think of anything that would poison the well more,” said Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, who is seeking a third 6-year term against Democratic nominee David Alameel, a Dallas investor and dentist.

Immigration advocates have accused Cornyn for years, and Republicans generally, of using security demands as a trump card to deflect demands for broader reforms.

Cornyn acknowledged that advocates might see a security-first approach as yet another stalling tactic.

“I guess we could say trust me. But there’s not a lot of trust,” he said. “But anything comprehensive is going to be viewed as another exercise like the Affordable Care Act” – that is, a huge, complex package with too many moving parts and too many objectionable elements.

A piecemeal approach suits Republicans better, Cornyn said.

“Is a Republican-controlled Congress going to pass a quick pathway to citizenship? No,” he said. “But would there be an opportunity to vote on — once border security was addressed, once the visa overstay was addressed and an e-verify system put in place, is there way then to look at how do we provide some way for people to earn a legal status so that they can stay and be productive? I think there is.”

Cornyn was pleased at last week’s resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder. He’d called for years for Holder to resign, and Monday repeated assertions that Holder turned his office into an arm of the White House political operation.

“Eric Holder took this to an extreme,” Cornyn said, citing the Justice Department’s legal fight with Texas over the state’s voter ID law, and Holder’s role in the Fast and Furious gun-running operation.

He declined to pick a favorite for a replacement.

“I’m sure he’s not waiting for my recommendation. That might be the kiss of death,” he said, referring to Obama.

But he named one potential nominee he might find acceptable: Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel to Obama who previously held a top post at the Justice Department. He cautioned Obama not to name a replacement before the new Congress begins in January.

When it comes to the looming 2016 presidential race, Cornyn sounded tepid when it comes to the state’s junior senator, Ted Cruz, or fellow tea partier Rand Paul, who represents Kentucky in the Senate but who also has deep Texas roots, born and raised in the Houston area and educated at Baylor.

Asked about them and Gov. Rick Perry, who also is eyeing a run, Cornyn said, “I’m not going to pick among my friends. I do think that we have a number of governors that I think have had good experience running things which I think will make them attractive.”

Cornyn took a small swipe at Democratic challenger David Alameel, a Dallas dentist and investor.

“I’ve not seen him on the campaign trail,” he said, though he did recall meeting Alameel years ago. “He used to be a supporter of mine and he used to be an active Republican donor.” (Earlier this year Alameel requested a refund of his donations to Cornyn, which the senator refused.)

On the Islamic State, Cornyn reiterated his view that Obama should have come to Congress and sought a full debate over U.S. military involvement. That, he said, would promote buy-in both from lawmakers and the public.

And he called it remarkable that Tony Blinken, a top White House national security adviser, said Sunday that Obama still wants Congress to repeal a 2002 authorization to use military force in Iraq, even as he invokes it for the U.S. involvement against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

“My head may explode trying to figure that one out,” Cornyn said.

He added that Obama seems to be ignoring military advice by refusing to commit U.S. combat troops to the fight.

He called it a grievous mistake to work with Iran against ISIL.

“That’s very dangerous,” Cornyn said. “You can already see them try to leverage their participation… into not giving up their nuclear weapons-building capability…. The single biggest threat to the Middle East is an Iranian nuclear weapon.”

Cruz doesn’t trust Obama to follow through on amnesty delay

Sen. Ted Cruz criticizes President Obama on immigration policy on Tuesday at a news conference on Capitol Hill with Reps. John Carter, R-Round Rock (far left) and Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio. Behind Cruz is Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON– Sen. Ted Cruz led a chorus of conservatives Tuesday denouncing President Barack Obama both for planning to grant “amnesty” to 5 million or more people in the country illegally, and for delaying any such orders until after the November elections.

“President Obama has decided this election will be a referendum on amnesty,” Cruz asserted. “We cannot solve this crisis at the border until we end President Obama’s amnesty.”

The blistering attack from the right came even as the White House faced fierce pushback from immigration advocates dismayed by Obama’s decision Saturday to put any immigration-related executive action on hold for at least two more months.

Pro-immigrant groups feel betrayed, and many fear that Obama will never fulfill his promise to step into a vacuum left by congressional stalemate.

Cruz likewise questioned Obama’s resolve, even as he warned that the president cannot be trusted to abandon his pro-immigrant agenda.

“I understand the immigration groups that, when they hear a promise from the president, they have reason to doubt it,” Cruz said. “It’s the same reason abroad that both our allies and our enemies have reason to doubt the president’s resolve. When you don’t follow through on what you say, that causes people to call into question what you say.”

He cited promises on Obamacare – that people who like their insurance or doctor could keep them – as examples of falsehoods that undermine Obama’s trustworthiness.

But he said, Congress must preclude any presidential action that would let millions of immigrants stay in the country after arriving without permission – action, he warned, that would serve as a “magnet” for millions more in the future.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, joining Cruz at a news conference at the Capitol, asserted that Obama had delayed executive action because “he is afraid of the American people…. The president himself knows it is not popular.”

Some Senate Democrats seeking reelection in November had feared backlash if Obama used his authority to delay deportations or otherwise alter immigration policy. At a Rose Garden appearance in late June, Obama had vowed to do just that by the end of summer, to circumvent House Republicans who had blocked an immigration overhaul.

Cruz and others seeking to repeal DACA demanded support from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and especially, other Democrats who pressured Obama to hold off.

“You’ve got Democratic senators home in their states saying `I’m opposed to amnesty,’ and yet they are complicit in President Obama’s amnesty,” Cruz said.  “If any red state Democrat is truly opposed to amnesty, he or she should be standing up here with us.”

Cruz is demanding a Senate vote on a bill that would freeze the executive order Obama issued in June 2012 that shielded from deportation people who immigrated illegally at a young age. Republicans blame the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” program for the surge of young Central American migrants in the past year.

The GOP-run House voted to end DACA before Congress went on summer recess. Senate Democrats refuse to put it to a vote. Cruz wants it attached to any short-term spending measure that would keep the federal government open past the end of this month.

This time last year, budget wrangling led to a weeks-long government shutdown. Cruz was at the center of that.

On Tuesday, he wouldn’t say if he would go that far with the demand to end DACA. But he said, “we should use any and all means necessary to prevent the president from illegally granting amnesty.”

Cruz was joined by Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Mike Lee of Utah, and a number of House Republicans, including several Texans: Smith and Reps. Pete Olson of Sugar Land, John Carter of Round Rock, Roger Williams of Austin, and Louie Gohmert of Tyler.