Rand Paul: I’d repeal all executive orders

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on Thursday that if he became president he would repeal all previous executive orders.

“I think the first executive order that I would issue would be to repeal all previous executive orders,” he said, according to Breitbart News. 

{mosads}Paul is a likely 2016 presidential candidate, and he made the remark at an event in New Hampshire, home of the first primary, to a group of young libertarians called Generation Opportunity.

“We’ve done way too many things [the wrong way]: Signing statements, altering legislation by the president, are wrong and unconstitutional and shouldn’t happen. Executive orders shouldn’t either,” Paul said.

Repealing all executive orders has the potential to undo a large amount of policy. Executive orders, for example, ban assassinations by the United States and organize intelligence agencies under the Director of National Intelligence.   

“Senator Paul’s statement was meant to emphasize this president’s overt and unconstitutional executive orders, it was not meant to be taken literally,” Paul spokesman Sergio Gor wrote in an email.

At the New Hampshire event, Paul also touched on his trip last month to Guatemala, one of the main sources of unaccompanied children arriving in the U.S. over the summer last month.

“I was in Guatemala a couple weeks ago, and my main conversation with the president there was we would like more adoption of Guatemalan children,” he said. “There are thousands of Americans who would adopt Guatemalan children. I don’t want to be the party that is against Guatemalan kids, but I do want to be the party that is for enforcing the rule of law and says we can’t have just everybody come whenever they want to.”