Politics

Team Rubio Hits Cruz Over Alleged ‘Support For Amnesty’ [VIDEO]

Derek Hunter Contributor
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Staffers for Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign have begun circulating a video, labeled as being from June of 2013, in which Texas Senator Ted Cruz expresses support for amnesty.

The clip has Cruz describing the impact of amendments he was offering to the Gang of Eight immigration bill, saying, “The 11 million who are here illegally would be granted legal status once the border was secured — not before — but after the border was secured, they would be granted legal status. And indeed, they would be eligible for permanent legal residency. But they would not be eligible for citizenship.”

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The 12-second clip was circulated by Rubio campaign staffers on social media.

Harris lists himself as a “Media consultant, Rubio adviser, and all around Republican hack.”

Pounder joined the Rubio team only six days ago, he served as president of American Rising PAC before joining the campaign.

Former Cruz communications adviser and CNN contributor Amanda Carpenter defended her old boss and gave some context to the attack.

The same YouTube account that posted the first video, named “Hypo-Cruz,” has a second, longer video of Senator Cruz on his “Gang of 8” immigration bill amendment. It appears to back up Carpenter’s assertion that Cruz was attempting to expose the bill as being only about citizenship for illegal aliens.

Cruz said, “And I’d like to make a final point to those advocacy groups that are very engaged in this issue and rightly concerned about addressing our immigration system and, in particular, about addressing the situation for the 11 million who are currently in the shadows. If this amendment is adopted to the current bill, the effect would be that those 11 million under this current bill would still be eligible for RPI status. They would still be eligible for legal status and indeed, under the terms of the bill, they would be eligible for LPR status as well so that they are out of the shadows, which the proponents of this bill repeatedly point to as their principal objective to provide a legal status for those who are here illegally to be out of the shadows. This amendment would allow that happen, but what it would do is remove the pathway to citizenship so that there are real consequences that respect the rule of law and that treat legal immigrants with the fairness and respect they deserve.” (Emphasis added.)

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