—Joe Biden, October, 2020
_____________________________________
In an appearance on ABC in October, then-candidate Joe Biden argued that presidents should avoiding using executive orders to impose legislation from the executive office.
@JoeBiden in October: “I have this strange notion, we are a democracy … if you can’t get the votes … you can’t [legislate] by executive order unless you’re a dictator. We’re a democracy. We need consensus." pic.twitter.com/7UotJCXSm3
____________________________________
Biden said to George Stephanopoulos that he would not be able to enact legislation without the votes necessary in Congress to do so.
"I've got to get the votes," Biden said. "I gotta get the votes. That's why y'know, the one thing that I, I have this strange notion. We're a democracy. Some of my Republican friends and some of my Democratic friends even occasionally 'well if you can't get the votes then by executive order you've got to so something.'
"Things you can't do by executive order unless you're a dictator. We're a democracy. We need a consensus," Biden said, before winning the election and going on to sign more executive orders in his first week in office than any other president ever in the history of the United States.
