Something extraordinary happened at the Republican debate on February 13, but though it led to a heated exchange between Senators Rubio and Cruz that attracted more press coverage than anything else, nobody seemed to grasp what had really happened.
It began when Cruz said: “Marco went on Univision in Spanish and said he would not rescind President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty on his first day in office.” Rubio objected vehemently that Cruz was lying. But the transcript of the Univision program is clear: Rubio did indeed say what Cruz quotes him as saying. Was Cruz perhaps quoting Rubio out of context, making the statement seem to imply more than it really did?
Quite the reverse. Had Cruz cited the fuller context, Rubio would have looked much worse. He had actually told Univision that Obama’s DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] is important. He added “At some point it’s going to have to end,” but then spelled out when and why: “it’s going to end because immigration reform is going to pass.” In other words, Obama’s illegal executive action would stay in place into an indefinite future time when legislation enacts a legal version of it anyway.
Far from lying about what Rubio had said, Cruz had greatly understated the point. Why then did Rubio respond as he did? Since what Cruz said was accurate, it would have been natural for Rubio to explain why he had said it, just as he had done for Univision. Instead, he launched into a series of accusations about Cruz’s lies, though it was Rubio who was lying.
The answer surely lies in the fact that only one week earlier, Phyllis Schlafly’s organization, The Eagle Forum, had issued a devastating report on Rubio’s consistent record of deception concerning illegal immigration, stretching from his days in the Florida legislature right up to the present……
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- Discussion
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RT if you agree we need a president we can trust to secure the border and stop illegal immigration! #fitshttps://t.co/JPRBRlV5xw
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 19, 2016
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