Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said Friday that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is creating a false narrative on the issue of immigration, saying Mr. Cruz wants to accuse everybody of not being as “pure” as he is.
Mr. Paul said Mr. Cruz’s position had been the same as his own on providing legalization for illegal immigrants in the country.
“I guess the problem with his authenticity is that he’s now saying, oh, he was never for amnesty,” Mr. Paul said of his 2016 GOP rival on “Fox and Friends.” “Well, I’m not for amnesty either, but I think we dumb down the debate when we start pointing fingers and calling everybody and saying, oh, they’re for amnesty and this and that.”
“What I am for is border security,” Mr. Paul said. “Secure the border first, but then I think we can find a way to give work visas or some way of accommodating the people who are here, but it’s not amnesty.”
“But I think Ted wants to have it both ways, but he also wants to accuse everybody else of not being as pure as he is, but in reality I think he’s creating a false narrative,” he said.
Mr. Cruz has tried to explain an amendment he introduced in 2013 to a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would have stripped illegal immigrants of a pathway to citizenship while leaving the door open to an eventual path to legal status.
The Texas Republican said on Fox News after Thursday’s GOP presidential debate that he was trying to use Democrats’ own language to draw out their hypocrisy on the issue.
“Chuck Schumer and the Democrats talked about people coming out of the shadows, but it wasn’t about that - it was about votes,” he said. “This was about votes, and that amendment laid that bare, and when the hypocrisy was shown to the American people, that’s one of the reasons we were able to kill it.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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