While Donald Trump held court at his veterans’ event with Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee by his side, the candidates at the Fox News Republican primary debate Thursday night found themselves in a savage conflict over immigration.
Moderator Megyn Kelly started the fireworks by rolling a series of clips showing Marco Rubio aggressively condemning amnesty for illegal aliens before seemingly reversing his position once in office.
“Haven’t you already proven you can’t be trusted on this issue?” Kelly asked.
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Rubio claimed he did not support “blanket amnesty,” but Kelly confronted him with his own words.
Rubio said: “This issue does need to be solved. They’ve been talking about this issue for 30 years. And nothing ever happens. And I’m going to tell you exactly how we’re going to deal with it when I am president.
“Number one, we’re going to keep ISIS out of America. If we don’t know who you are or why you’re coming, you will not get into the United States. Number two, we are going to enforce our immigration laws. I am the son and the grandson of immigrants, and I know securing our border is not anti-immigrant and we will do it.”
But after further detailing his border-security plans, including the creation of border fences and mandatory E-Verify, Rubio found himself under attack by Jeb Bush. Rather than posturing as a strong opponent of mass immigration, Bush admitted he favored a comprehensive approach but stated Rubio had been a sponsor of the Gang of Eight bill before he decided to “cut and run” on the issue.
Ted Cruz also did not emerge unscathed.
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Kelly stated: “When Sen. Rubio proposed that bill creating a path to citizenship, you proposed an amendment. It would have allowed for legalization.” She argued, “Yes it would!” when Cruz began to protest.
“Pressed last month on why you supported legalization, you claimed that you didn’t, like you just did,” Kelly continued. “I saw that,” she said with a smile, as the crowd laughed. She then played a series of videos where Cruz endorsed amnesty and a path for immigrants to obtain legal status.
Cruz fell back on support from Jeff Sessions and Steve King, both of whom have defended Cruz on immigration.
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Yet this only started a running battle between Cruz and Rubio, as each accused the other of hypocrisy.
“This is the lie that Ted’s campaign is built on,” Rubio charged. “He’s the most conservative guy and everyone else is RINO. The truth is Ted, throughout this campaign, you’ve been willing to say or do anything in order to get votes.
“Ted, you worked for George W. Bush’s campaign. You helped design George W. Bush’s immigration policy. And then when you got to the Senate you did an interview with CBS News that wasn’t even on that video where you said on the issue of people that are here illegally, we can reach a compromise. And then in the committee, you said, ‘I want to bring people out of the shadows.’ Now, you want to trump Trump on immigration!”
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