Fox Host Chris Wallace Says 5th Circuit Judge Was ‘Looking For A Fight’ With Obama Administration

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace told Fox & Friends on Friday that he believed the 5th Circuit justices should have “stayed out of” the argument between President Obama and the Supreme Court as they prepare to decide the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

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Wallace was asked by host Steve Doocy to weigh in on the president’s speech on Monday when he warned the court that a decision which struck down all or parts of his signature health care reform law would be “unprecedented.”

“Was it a mistake, what the President did, or was it a political calculation?” asked Doocy.

“I don’t know that it was a mistake to take on the Court,” said Wallace. “But the way he did it seems to have been a mistake because he made a bunch of statements that just weren’t true.”

Wallace went on to list those statements made by Obama that were untrue. “The fact that he’s had to walk it back – that certainly was a mistake,” said Wallace.

“What did you make, though, of that federal judge then demanding the Department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder having to defend the fact that, in fact, the Court can overturn a law,” asked host Gretchen Carlson.

“I think the judge should have stayed out of it,” said Wallace. “It seemed to me he was looking for a fight. It wasn’t coming up in his case. His case didn’t involve the striking down of the individual mandate – it was a health care case, but a different one. Look, there are separate branches; I just don’t know why he decided to weigh into it.”

5th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith demanded that the Department of Justice submit a three page, single spaced explanation on the Obama administration’s thinking as it relates to the privilege of judicial review on Tuesday. That report was submitted on Thursday.

Watch the segment below via Fox News Channel:

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