Donald Trump’s campaign Sunday downplayed his stated willingness to “soften” the stance on deporting illegal immigrants, reassuring his conservative base that he wasn’t waffling on the get-tough agenda that helped propel him to the Republican presidential nomination.
The campaign also pushed back. Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence voiced indignation against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s accusations that Mr. Trump embraced white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis.
Fanning out across TV talk shows, Mr. Trump’s running mate, campaign manager and other top surrogates said the New York billionaire remained committed to his core principles on fighting illegal immigration.
“He’s going to build the wall, no amnesty, no citizenship, no more sanctuary cities,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“The softening is more approach than policy,” she said. “We want to find a fair and humane way, and if you enforce the law and you deal with those agencies that already exist to enforce the law, then we will see what we’ve got.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, said Mr. Trump soon will deliver a speech outlining his immigration plan.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump: ‘Major speech’ on illegal immigration coming Wednesday in Arizona
“His position is going to be tough. His position is going to be fair. His position is going to be humane,” he said.
The talking points shared by Trump surrogates described the plan as tough, fair and humane, echoing a new tone if not a new agenda, since Mr. Trump began more aggressively courting black and Hispanic voters.
Ruling out amnesty or a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, Trump campaign officials described a process by which illegal immigrants would have to leave the U.S. and then return legally.
That “touchback” approach has been favored for the past decade by moderate Republicans but failed to galvanize the party’s base or win over the vast majority of Hispanic voters.
Mrs. Conway stressed that Mr. Trump’s position still stood in stark contrast to those of Mrs. Clinton, who Mrs. Conway said supports expanding President Obama’s policies on immigration — an executive amnesty, a “catch and release” policy for Border Patrol and deference to sanctuary cities.
As the Trump campaign struggled with the immigration issue, the Clinton campaign was relatively quiet. The only Clinton surrogate dispatched to a major TV political talk show was Donna Brazile, interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
Ms. Brazile did not discuss immigration.
Mr. Trump suffered backlash from some supporters after saying he was open to “softening” plans to forcibly deport all of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. The promise of mass deportations was part of Mr. Trump’s speech announcing his candidacy more than a year ago. At various times during the campaign, he said he would organize a “deportation force” to get the job done.
The real estate tycoon stopped using those terms in recent months, but the remark Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” program about taking a softer stance was the first public acknowledgment that his immigration policy could be evolving.
“When you say fair and humane, fair to who? It’s not fair to the American citizen. It’s not fair to the taxpayer,” said conservative activist Sue Payne, who was an early supporter of Mr. Trump.
She wasn’t impressed by the backpedaling from Mr. Trump’s surrogates, and she blamed them for steering Mr. Trump away from mass deportations in the first place.
“The thing that got me on board was immigration. If he wavers on immigration, he loses his base and he will lose the election,” she said. “When Trump starts listening to [advisers], he sounds like Jeb Bush, and Jeb Bush is a loser. Trump must get back to listening to the people.”
Mr. Pence insisted that the Trump immigration agenda was as tough as ever.
“Let’s be very clear: Nothing has changed about Donald Trump’s position on dealing with illegal immigration,” the Indiana governor said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Mr. Trump still plans to build a wall on the southern border, crack down on illegal immigrants’ ability to find work in the U.S. and create a “mechanism” for dealing with the huge population of illegal immigrants, he said.
Mr. Pence noted Mr. Trump’s repeated use of the word “humane” to describe the plans.
“You heard the word humanely again,” he said. “It’s going to be fair. It’s going to be tough. There will be no path to legalization, no path to citizenship, unless people leave the country.”
Mr. Pence also balked at accusations that Mr. Trump was catering to racists, calling such talk an “act of desperation” by the Clinton campaign.
He said it was no coincidence that Mrs. Clinton made the charges as polls tightened and she was battered by new reports about the State Department email scandal and possible ethics conflicts involving the Clinton Foundation.
“The fact that you see Democrats and Hillary Clinton and her running mate rolling out the same old playbook of racial divisiveness sounds a little bit to me like an act of desperation,” he said. “I think that is deeply offensive.”
Mrs. Clinton last week said Mr. Trump was leaguing hate groups and the “radical fringe” in a takeover of the Republican Party. She aired a TV ad linking Mr. Trump to white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, said Mr. Trump promoted “Ku Klux Klan values.”
The racially charged assault followed Mr. Trump’s direct appeal to black voters. He said minorities were victims of Mrs. Clinton’s “bigotry” of taking their votes for granted and paying only lip service to their problems.
“Donald Trump believes we can make America great again for every American, regardless of race or creed or color,” said Mr. Pence. “The only answer Hillary Clinton and her running mate have is more of the same kind of racial divisiveness and racial attacks, and I really think it is beneath the dignity” of a presidential campaign.
Mr. Trump previously encountered sharp criticism in the news media for hesitating to disavow support from white supremacists such as David Duke, who is running for U.S. Senate in Louisiana.
Mr. Pence said he was “really bothered” by Mr. Duke’s support.
“Donald Trump made it clear repeatedly this week that not only does he denounce David Duke but we don’t want the support of people who think like David Duke,” he said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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