GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump said he’s willing to negotiate to a certain extent on immigration, amid a story about off-the-record comments he reportedly made about the subject during a recent meeting with the New York Times.
“We had a board meeting, it was off the record — all of a sudden, they leak. It’s all over the place,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday.
“Things are negotiable,” Mr. Trump said. “I’ll be honest with you. You know, I’ll make the wall 2 feet shorter or something. I mean, everything’s negotiable.”
Buzzfeed reported Monday the newspaper has audio of a conversation with Mr. Trump last month and, according to “sources familiar with the recording,” Mr. Trump might have indicated a certain degree of flexibility on his hardline immigration plans.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marco Rubio on Monday had called on Mr. Trump to ask the newspaper to release the off-the-record portion of his comments.
Mr. Trump said on Fox News that actually building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is not negotiable.
SEE ALSO: Ted Cruz to Trump: Tell NYT to release off-the-record comments about immigration
He was also asked whether his plans on how to handle the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in the country were negotiable.
“I’ve always said we have some good people over here, and they’re going to go out, but we will work out some system that’s fair, but we either have a country or we don’t,” he said. “We need a border, we need a wall.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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