Thursday, December 17, 2015

First Read: The Cruz-Rubio Immigration War Has Begun

 
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
 
Begun, the Cruz-Rubio Immigration War has

The immigration fight between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio is fully on -- after Cruz blasted Rubio at Tuesday's debate for his co-authorship of the "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill, and then after Rubio fired back on Wednesday. "[Cruz] clearly supported legalization. I know he doesn't say that in Iowa, he takes it out of his stump speech," Rubio told NBC's Hallie Jackson yesterday. "But I know for a fact that he supported an amendment in the U.S. Senate when we were debating the immigration bill where he flat out bragged about the fact that he wasn't undoing the legalization." Cruz has responded that the amendment Rubio is talking about was a "poison pill" amendment intended to thwart the overall legislation. And Cruz gets a boost here when you find out that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), maybe the most hardline anti-immigration voice in the Senate, voted for the same amendment that Cruz backed. Still, you have to credit Team Rubio for muddying the waters on what could very well be his campaign's biggest liability -- Gang of Eight. And Cruz's performance in that Fox News interview was shaky at best. But ask yourself what conservative voters will care about in the next six weeks: Rubio standing shoulder to shoulder with Chuck Schumer, or Cruz voting with Jeff Sessions? 

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Source: NBC News

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