Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews discussing the presidential press conference that had just wrapped up, said he understood President Barack Obama’s answer to whether he will grant work permits essentially creating amnesty for up to 5 million illegal immigrants living in the United States was “yes.”

Matthews said, “His answer to me was yes — I’m going to issue some kind of system whereby people get relief from deportation or whatever it is. The government of the United States is going to in effect give work permits to people in this country illegally.”

The MSNBC host added, “Let’s go to something the former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said — ‘Let no crisis go unexploited,’ something to that extent. These young people on the border, everyone knows we have to address it. that means executive discretion. I’m also going to deal with that other problem. I will leave some people of the enforcement. He is talking about a big solution. When you talk about work permits, you talk about up to 5 million people, a huge — this is an Emancipation Proclamation.”

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