W.H. Won’t Rule out Closing Guantanamo Without Congressional Approval

Earnest vs. Karl on Obama "Unilaterally" Closing Guantanamo: "I'm Not Ruling A Final Judgment On This" (RealClearPolitics)

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS: Would you concede that if you cannot convince Congress -- as you've point out both Democrats and Republicans -- to change its stand, its view on Guantanamo Bay, the detention facility there, that that facility will remain open after this president leaves office? There's nothing he can do unilaterally without Congress to close that facility.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE: Well, I'm not willing to jump that far ahead. What I am willing to say is --

KARL: You won't rule out that the president could unilaterally, without Congress, close it?

EARNEST: Or that the president may be able to prevail upon enough members of Congress to work with him, to achieve, again, a goal that is shared by Democrats and Republicans.

KARL: Unless you can convince Congress to change its approach on this, which seems farfetched to say the least, but putting that aside, unless you can convince Congress to go along with the administration on this that that detention facility will remain open.

EARNEST: Well, I will admit I am not aware of all of the tools that are at the disposal of the president. And presumably, if we had a lot of options for overcoming those obstacles that Congress has thrown up, we probably would have used some of them already. And, so, I'm not ruling a sort of final judgment on this, but I will concede to the premise of your question, that it will be very, very difficult for us to achieve that goal before the president leaves office as long as Congress continues to block it.