The chairman of the Republican National Committee told tea party activists Monday night that the GOP will unite against President Barack Obama’s still-secret plans to enact an unpopular post-election unilateral amnesty.
But there’s little evidence that Priebus’ promise is sincere.
“We will do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen,” Priebus told hundreds of participants in TheTeaParty.net call Oct. 27, according to a Breitbart article.
“Defunding, going to court, injunction. You name it. It’s wrong. It’s illegal,” Priebus continued.
“And for so many reasons, and just the basic fabric of this country, we can’t allow it to happen and we won’t let it happen. I don’t know how to be any stronger than that. I’m telling you, everything we can do to stop it we will,” he said.
If Priebus’ commitment is sincere, it would be a dramatic reversal of the GOP leadership’s hands-off policy toward the president’s unpopular immigration plans, just one week before a close midterm election.
So far, top GOP leadership — including Priebus — has downplayed the issue in the 2014 election, despite polls showing opposition from GOP voters, and splits among Democratic, Latino and swing voters. (RELATED: GOP Chairman Touts Immigration For Economy, Sidelines Obama’s Amnesty)
The leader of the GOP in the Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell, briefly told Fox News Tuesday that a unilateral amnesty by Obama would be “a big mistake.” But he repeatedly shifted the topic away from immigration toward Obama’s other efforts to bypass congressional authority.
Some GOP candidates — chiefly, Rep. Tom Cotton in Arkansas, and Scott Brown in New Hampshire — have used the issue to win swing voters. (RELATED: Cotton Hits Sen. Pryor On Amnesty To Win Swing Voters)
But Priebus did not broadcast his new-found anti-amnesty views to any additional audiences.
He made the commitment to only one tea party group, and via one interview with Breitbart News shortly before the tea party conference call.
He said nothing about it on his Twitter feed Tuesday, or anything during a TV appearance Tuesday morning. The RNC’s Twitter account ignored the statement, but did urge followers to an an official GOP camouflage hat.
Even the RNC’s own “morning reads” of daily media coverage ignored Priebus’ statement, and instead summarized a Washington Post article that showed “immigration reform was not a top priority for Obama.”
That’s consistent with RNC policy. The RNC’s website last mentioned immigration Sept. 9. The most recent mention of “unilateral” and “amnesty” was July 25, 2014, and May 8, 2013, respectively.
The Daily Caller ask for a five-minute interview with Priebus, so he could repeat the promise to TheDC’s audience of 17 million general-interest readers. But press aide Raffi Williams declined, saying “I checked with his scheduler and his schedule is jam packed this week ahead of the elections, sorry.”
Priebus did find time to appear on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where he did not mention his opposition to Obama amnesty. “Morning Joe” averaged 342,000 viewers a day in October, according to ratings released by CNN.
The pattern of behavior shows that Priebus “is trying to placate the base without alerting the liberal media or the donor class,” which favor additional immigration, said Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors reduced immigration.
“I wouldn’t take it that way,” said Niger Innis, the executive director of TeaParty.net, who championed Priebus in an interview with TheDC.
Priebus’ statement was strong and positive, Innis said. “The Republican Party first and foremost should be a conservative party, and he understands the base of the party — the people who do the volunteer work — are conservative and many consider themselves tea party members, and the last thing he wants to is alienate those supporters.”
The RNC’s employees may not have touted the speech, Innis said, but Priebus “doesn’t control every decision that is made in that apparatus,” and the RNC’s silence “could be [because] one those bureaucrats decided not to make that a big posting.”
The RNC did send out copies of the Breitbart article to some supporters, via its “war-room” mailing list, and the Breitbart article was posted on Drudge, maximizing its visibility.
But Priebus’ refusal to broadcast his message via additional media “reinforces the impression that this [anti-amnesty message] is being said only to placate conservatives,” said Krikorian. The message was passed through Innis’ group, even though a larger tea party group, the Tea Party Patriots, has been much more active in the immigration debate, he added.
“The conclusion I would draw, if I were in the White House, is that Republican [leaders] really aren’t serious” about stopping the unilateral amnesty, Krikorian said.