Eight years after she ran for president opposing driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton now supports state efforts to do exactly that.
In October 2007, then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton stumbled during a Democratic presidential debate when asked whether or not she favored then-Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s plan to provide illegal immigrants New York driver’s licenses. After giving an answer that made it sound as though she supported driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, she clarified later in the debate that she did not.
“What is the governor supposed to do?” Clinton said. “He is dealing with a serious problems. We have failed. And George Bush has failed. Do I think this is the best thing for any governor to do? No.” (VIDEO: DNC Head: Marco Rubio Wants Latinos To ‘Go Back Where You Came From’)
The other candidates jumped on her wishy-washy answer. “I was confused on Sen. Clinton’s answer. I can’t tell whether she was for it or against it,” said then-Sen. Barack Obama (who supported the idea).
Clinton clarified the issue in a statement two weeks later praising Spitzer for withdrawing his proposal: “As president, I will not support driver’s licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration, including border security and fixing our broken system.”
But Clinton appears to have flip-flopped on the issue. “Hillary supports state policies to provide driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants,” a campaign spokesperson told The Huffington Post.
Clinton’s newfound position is deeply unpopular among the general population. A Huff Post/ YouGov poll found that 64 percent of Americans oppose allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, including a plurality of Democrats. Likewise, a 2013 Rasmussen poll found that 68 percent of likely voters oppose such proposals. (RELATED: Gallup Poll Finds Only SEVEN PERCENT Of Americans Want More Immigration)