King: 'I don't remember' 2012 debate on immigration so reform is a 'mistake'

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) asserted on Sunday that Republicans should not support immigration reform because he couldn't remember President Barack Obama and former Republican nominee Mitt Romney debating the topic during the 2012 election.

In an interview on Fox News, King told host Chris Wallace that it was "a mistake for Republicans to believe the election was about immigration."

"I don't remember a debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on immigration," he insisted. "I remember waking of the morning of the 7th and November after the election and hearing immigration was the reason that Mitt Romney wasn't president elect on that day."

Wallace wondered why King opposed even beginning the reform process with a border enforcement bill.

"There's nothing we can do to pass a law to force the president to enforce a law that he doesn't like," the Iowa Republican explained. "He's proven it over and over again."

"If we pass something, they're still going to take the credit for it in the White House," King added. "The president is going to sign the bill. They're going to continue to use this for political reasons. That's at the base of this. Some Republicans have bit into this thinking we have to take it off the table by passing amnesty."

In fact, Obama and Romney faced off on immigration reform during an October debate last year.

For his part, Romney doubled down on his policy of "self-deportation" and promised not to "grant amnesty to those who have come here illegally."

Obama rejected Romney's plan to make "life so miserable on folks that they'll leave," and said that he wanted to "fix this system in a comprehensive way."

Watch this video from Fox News' Fox News Sunday, broadcast July 14, 2013.