New York Times
By Maggie Haberman and Ashley Parker
January 12, 2016
Senator
Marco Rubio is getting savaged on the topic of immigration reform, with
ads from groups backing two of his rivals painting him as a
flip-flopper and as overly
close to President Obama and Senator Chuck Schumer.
The
twin assaults reflect the changing dynamics of the Republican race now
that Mr. Rubio is rising in the polls in early-voting states. The
senator’s past work on immigration
reform has left him exposed in a nominating contest in which
conservatives are deeply skeptical of such efforts, with the new ads
suggesting intensifying attacks on his record less than three weeks
before the Iowa caucuses.
The
ad from the group backing Mr. Cruz is so far running only online, but
it is potentially damaging to Mr. Rubio in how it uses his comments from
2013 — interspersed
with those from Mr. Obama and Mr. Schumer — in describing both Mr.
Rubio’s role in the effort and the bill itself.
It
opens with Mr. Obama speaking behind a lectern, saying, “Yesterday, a
bipartisan group of senators announced their principles for
comprehensive immigration reform,
which are very much in line with the principles I proposed and
campaigned on for the last few years.”
It
later cuts to Mr. Schumer saying of Mr. Rubio, “His fingerprints are
all over that bill.” At another point, when Mr. Schumer is asked if Mr.
Rubio resisted putting
a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the bill — a
critical element that conservatives opposed — the Democratic senator
from New York replied, “No, he understood it, he molded it, he made it.”
Kellyanne
Conway, the president of Keep the Promise I, which is leading a string
of allied super PACs backing Mr. Cruz, said that the “Gang of Eight
amnesty deal was a
pivotal point for senators to draw a line in the sand on their
positions on the crucial issue of rewarding those who broke the law.”
The
2016 calendar is still fluid, with primary and caucus dates uncertain
in more than a dozen states. Both parties are requiring all states but
four to wait until March
to hold their nominating contests or face delegate penalties.
Mr. Cruz, she added, helped to stop “the bill in its tracks.”
Meanwhile,
the ad by the Right to Rise super PAC backing Mr. Bush aimed to paint
Mr. Rubio as a “weather vane” for shifting his position from working on
immigration reform
to now stopping “amnesty” for those in the country illegally. But Mr.
Bush is a proponent of immigration reform, making it delicate terrain
for him.
“He
ran for Senate saying he opposed amnesty,” says the narrator of the
30-second ad called “Vane,” which features Mr. Rubio atop a weather
vane, swiveling back and forth.
“Then he flipped, and worked with liberal Chuck Schumer to co-author
the path to citizenship. He threatened to vote against it, and then
voted for it.”
“Marco
Rubio, just another Washington politician you can’t trust,” concludes
the ad, which is airing in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
The Rubio campaign has struck back at the ads.
“Both
Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush have changed their positions on immigration
during this campaign,” said Alex Conant, a spokesman for Mr. Rubio.
“Both supported helping illegal
immigrants in the U.S. and then switched positions for political
posturing. It’s sadly hypocritical for them to attack Marco, who has
stood on principle and been honest about his position.”
Some
Republican strategists said the circular firing squad can only help
Donald J. Trump, who continues to lead most Republican polls nationally.
“I
think Donald Trump is laughing all the way to his gold-plated bank
today,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist. “It seems that
the mainstream establishment
candidates are making sure this is the race none of them win.”
“This is the mutually assured destruction stage,” he added.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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