Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh tried to explain the “inexplicable” last-minute Republican push for immigration reform and amnesty, noting the GOP is “on a tightrope” between voter opposition to a flood of illegals and donor support for cheap labor.
On Friday, Republican leadership scrambled to pass some kind of immigration bill before leaving for August vacation, continuing to ignore the massive opposition to the move from their base.
“Republican voters — Americans of all stripes — are literally melting the phone lines in Washington,” Limbaugh said. “They are letting all of their elected officials know that they don’t want any part of comprehensive immigration reform or any temporary legal status for the kids coming across the border.”
“What the American people know that if this is not dealt with there’s no end to this,” he continued. “And there’s got to be an end to it. There simply has to be. Or else borders don’t mean anything anymore. And if your borders don’t mean anything, it won’t be long before you don’t have a nation And people are very cognizant of this.”
“The Republicans in Washington — the Republican leadership — there are all kinds of ways to explain their behavior,” Limbaugh said. “Common sense, however, will not answer your questions.”
“I’m gonna tell you why they’re doing what they’re doing,” the radio host continued. “And it isn’t complicated. It’s kind of tough to swallow, but it isn’t complicated. Even though you’re melting the phone lines, they don’t care.”
“Their donors are telling them they want comprehensive immigration reform — which is a much different thing than what’s being discussed at the border today with the children,” Limbaugh said. “The donors, the people the Republicans really think make their lives possible.”
Limbaugh explained that big money Republican donor groups — the Chamber of Commerce chief among them — want a glut of cheap immigrant labor and are willing to threaten the GOP with destruction in order to make that a reality.
“Chamber of Commerce [President] Tom Donahue said within the past six weeks that ‘If the Republicans don’t do comprehensive immigration reform, they may as well not even nominate a candidate for president in 2016,'” he said. “Now that’s a little extreme, but he was trying to make a point: ‘Hey, do not ignore us.'”
“The simple explanation is, for the most part, the Republican leadership in the House supports amnesty,” Limbaugh asserted. “There’s no other way to explain what they’re doing . . . The people that they think make them possible want it. Therefore, they’re supporting amnesty.”
“What they’re trying to figure out how to do is to pretend that they’re not for it,” he continued. “And that’s why they’re twisted in all kinds of different shapes, while they are figuring out ways to end up making comprehensive immigration reform possible.”
“If they don’t support amnesty, they at least believe that their donors want it, and so therefore they’ve got to deliver,” Limbaugh claimed. “But they know you don’t want it. So they’re on a tightrope.”
“It’s not that they want to blow you off,” he said. “They want to give their donors what they want while, at the same time, figure out how to convince you that that’s not what they’re doing. And that’s why it’s hard to figure out what they’re doing.”