Marco Rubio, fighting to overcome the legacy of his signature Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill, now claims “there isn’t that big a difference” on the issue between himself and rival Ted Cruz, who opposed the sprawling 2013 legislation.
“Ted was … a supporter of legalizing people that were in this country illegally,” Rubio said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And so the bottom line is there isn’t that big a difference between him and I on how to approach immigration.”
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Rubio’s statement left some observers dumbfounded. It’s not just that Rubio voted for the Gang of Eight bill (in addition to writing it) and Cruz voted against it. Even a cursory look at the Gang of Eight debate shows issue after issue in which Cruz and fellow opponents pointed out problems with the bill, only to have Rubio and the Gang reject their views. A June 4, 2013 “Dear Colleague” letter signed by Cruz, Jeff Sessions, Charles Grassley, and Mike Lee sets out a long list of amendments — concerning border security, treatment of illegal immigrant criminals, immediate legalization, a path to citizenship, and other issues — that outlined enormous differences between Cruz and Rubio.
Rubio supporters sometimes point out that such differences were in the past — more than two years ago — and that Rubio’s position on comprehensive immigration reform today is different than it was then. But first, it is unclear just what parts of the 1,197-page Gang of Eight bill Rubio now views differently, and second, on “Face the Nation” Rubio suggested that positions in the past are relevant to today’s debate. ‘If you’re going to attack someone on a policy issue,” Rubio said, “you need to be clear about where you stand on the issue and where you’ve stood in the past.”
What is clear is that the current fight, set off by a single question at last Tuesday’s Republican debate in Las Vegas, will continue for quite a while. In an email exchange, Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler predicted conservative commentators will not let the issue fade. “Conservatives lived through Marco’s Gang of Eight amnesty betrayal that would have given millions of undocumented Democrats full citizenship,” Tyler said. “The full court press to stop it was driven by conservative talk radio and online media. Rush, Levin, Beck and others are simply not going to stand for Marco’s revisionist history, nor are they going to let another establishment moderate smear the conservative in the race — not this time.”
