Rudy Giuliani and John McCain clashed over immigration Tuesday at a Republican presidential debate that also featured candidates embracing creationism and a possible nuclear attack on Iran.
Giuliani slammed McCain’s call for illegal immigrants to be granted legal status as part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill being debated in the Senate.
“The problem with this immigration plan is it has no real unifying purpose,” the former New York mayor said at the debate in New Hampshire, site of the nation’s first presidential primary. “It’s a typical Washington mess. It’s everybody compromises — four or five compromises.”
Giuliani called for a tamperproof ID card for legal immigrants, all of whom would be listed in a database. Those who were not in the database could be thrown out of the country, he said.
“Rudy, you just described our legislation,” McCain, R-Ariz., replied. “So I’d be glad to have further conversation with you, because it does account for people who are hereillegally.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who opposes the immigration bill, declined to overtly attack McCain, even after moderator Wolf Blitzer of CNN quoted McCain taking a veiled swipe at Romney a day earlier.
“He’s my friend,” Romney said. “He campaigned for me two times. I consider him a friend. I’m not going to make this a matter of personal politics. It’s an issue that’s way too important for that.”
During the debate, which was held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist pastor, gave an impassioned defense of his belief in creationism. The answer was called “eloquent” by McCain.
Rep. Duncan Hunter of California said that if he were elected president, he would take strong measures, if necessary, to pre-empt Iran from using centrifuges to enrich fuel from nuclear power plants in order to develop nuclear weapons.
“I would authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons if there was no other way to pre-empt those particular centrifuges,” Hunter said.
At one point in the debate, Blitzer asked Giuliani, a pro-abortion rights Catholic, to respond to a Catholic bishop who compared Giuliani to Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands of the crucifixion of Christ. As Giuliani started to answer, a lightning strike outside the building caused the sound system to crackle and momentarily falter.
“For someone who went to parochial schools all his life, this is a very frightening thing,” Giuliani deadpanned as several other candidates jokingly moved away from him on the stage.
