The
Conservative Review
By: Steve Deace
February 16, 2016
Regarding his record on immigration/amnesty, Republican presidential
candidate Marco Rubio is asserting some things that simply aren’t reconcilable
with numerous other eye witness accounts of what went down during the infamous
“Gang of Eight” battle in 2013 and its (ongoing) aftermath.
This is far bigger than simply a disagreement between Rubio and his
presidential rival, Ted Cruz, in the heat of a competitive race. No campaign is
immune from telling the political equivalent of fish stories to some extent. But
what Rubio is asserting as truth goes far beyond a partly sunny versus mostly
cloudy debate. By crafting an alternative reality on his own record, Rubio has
run afoul of much more than a competitor.
Rubio is literally calling some of the most respected names in
conservativism liars. Here’s a sample of the people who must be lying for Rubio
to be telling the truth.
On Rubio’s claim that Cruz’s ‘poison pill’ amendment to his ‘Gang of Eight’ amnesty bill really indicated Cruz was for amnesty, too:
Rush Limbaugh, 05/08/2013 – “Senator Cruz filed an amendment that
would bar undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States from
ever earning citizenship. Meaning they could never vote … He wants to, okay,
look, these 11 million, whatever we're gonna do, they will never be granted
citizenship. You can do whatever you want with them, but they'll never be
granted citizenship…Now, that's similar to a proposal that we made (on this
show). Okay, we'll support amnesty on this program with one proviso, and that is
that everybody granted amnesty can't vote for 25 years … I guarantee you the
people for amnesty will never go for it that way. ‘What's the point, Mr.
Limbaugh?’ The point is to prove nobody cares about 'em coming out from the
shadows and nobody cares about 'em being treated with dignity and nobody cares
about any of that. They're looked at as voters. If we make everything else in
immigration possible, except they can't vote, then what happens to the support
for it? It would all plummet and fall apart.”
Senator Mike Lee, 12/18/2015 – "At no time during that process — at
no moment did I ever see Ted Cruz take any action that was tantamount to saying
he was embracing amnesty. Insofar as anybody is trying to suggest that Ted Cruz
and Marco Rubio had the same position with regards amnesty or with regards to
the ‘Gang of Eight’ bill — that is absolutely false."
Senator Jeff Sessions, 12/19.2015 – “Let me tell you, I was there
(during the “Gang of 8”). Every step of the way, Ted Cruz was on my side and
fought (Rubio’s amnesty) legislation all the way through.”
On Rubio’s contention that Cruz is lying about pro-amnesty comments
Rubio made in Spanish to Univision last year:
Phyllis Schlafly, 08/15/2015 – “Marco Rubio should be disqualified for lying about amnesty in Spanish (on Univision).”
Schlafly was referring to comments Rubio made to amnesty pimp/pretend
journalist Jorge Ramos in Spanish on Univision last April, when Rubio said “I
wouldn’t undo (Obama’s illegal executive amnesty) immediately.” And Rubio said
he hoped it would only end because his “immigration reform [see that as the
“Gang of Eight” amnesty bill] is going to pass.”
Are we really supposed
to believe Rubio has more credibility on immigration/amnesty than these four
people?
Rubio claimed at Saturday’s debate that Cruz doesn’t know Spanish
(which Cruz then proved in the debate he does), therefore he couldn’t know what
Rubio actually said on Univision. But the translation of the original transcript
verifies Schlafly’s account, and not Rubio’s. In fact, Rubio’s campaign verified
that translation as accurate at the time.
So to recap, Rubio has now implicitly called the following four
people liars:
•Rush Limbaugh, the Godfather of conservative media.
•Phyllis Schlafly, the grand dame of the conservative movement.
•Mike
Lee, the only U.S. Senator with a perfect 100% liberty score here at
Conservative Review.
•Jeff Sessions, almost universally recognized as the
staunchest advocate for national sovereignty in the U.S. Senate.
These are four of the most respected and decorated people in the
conservative movement, and all four of them contradict Rubio’s campaign
narrative. Are we really supposed to believe Rubio has more credibility on
immigration/amnesty than these four people? None of whom, by the way, have
endorsed Cruz’s presidential campaign. Thus it can’t be claimed they’re biased.
They’re simply calling balls and strikes here.
In conclusion, allow me to throw one more person into this
conversation for good measure, albeit one of far inferior stature to the
aforementioned quartet — me.
On Monday, Rubio incredulously said his “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill
was “never meant to become law.” Except that’s not the way he made it sound to
me back in 2013, when he called me on the phone to lobby me directly to support
his amnesty legislation.
At least Jeb Bush has the integrity to stand up there in these
debates and own positions he knows are unpopular. I have more respect for that
than the dissembling we’re currently witnessing from Rubio.
No comments:
Post a Comment