Using the word ‘self-deportation’ — I mean, it’s a horrific comment to make. It’s not something that has anything to do with our party. But when a candidate makes those comments, obviously it hurts us.
~ Reince Priebus Via Business Insider
Correction, 12:26 p.m. ET: An original version of this story said that Reince Priebus referred to Mitt Romney's comments as "racist." He said it "hurts us." Business Insider regrets the error.
~
Correction from Business Insider
It turns out a spokesman for the Republican National Committee mistakenly confirmed on Friday that chairman Reince Priebus had described the term "self-deportation" as "racist."
The committee's communications director Sean Spicer told TPM on Friday afternoon that a regional spokesperson earlier in the day had mistakenly made the confirmation when he was contacted by a Cornell University law professor and blogger.
~
From Talking Points Memo
Mitt Romney in 2012 ~ Self-Deport Grandma
Well, the answer is self-deportation, which is people decide that they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here because they don’t have legal documentation to allow them to work here. (Audience laughs) And so we’re not going to round people up. [...] Well, yes, we’d have a card that indicates who’s here legally. And if people are not able to have a card, and have that through an e-verify system to determine that they are here legally, then they’re going to find they can’t find work here. And if people don’t get work here, they’re going to self-deport to a place they can get work.
~
Then-Candidate Mitt Romney via PoliticusUSA
Steve King, R-IA ~ Drug Mules with Cantalope Calves
Some of (the Dreamers) are valedictorians — and their parents brought them in. It wasn't their fault. It's true in some cases, but they aren't all valedictorians. They weren't all brought in by their parents.
"For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds — and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Those people would be legalized with the same act.
~
Rep. Steve King of Iowa on Newsmax
That description comes from many days down on the border, riding and sitting with the border patrol and without them at night, no night vision, watching the shadows come across the border, picking people up personally with my hands, unloading illegal drugs out of a vehicle with a false bottom under the truck. I mean this is a personal experience and I sit there at night and border patrol agents would come to me one at a time in their civil clothes and talk to me clandestinely…This description is the description from that kind of experience.
~
Rep. Steve King of Iowa
Steve King: The GOP is Under a Spell on Immigration
Last year, almost everybody in my conference would’ve agreed with me on this immigration issue. And this year, it seems as though after the presidential election a spell’s been cast over a good number of Republicans and they seem to think the presidential election was about immigration. I’d ask them, find me that debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama that addressed immigration. I don’t remember it. I can’t find it. The election was about jobs and the economy, not immigration. And yet some Republican strategists and leadership have decided let’s just go ahead and debate immigration for twelve months and then we’ll see if we can solve the problem…
~
Congressman Steve King
GOP Leaders to King ~ Just Shut Up!
I think Congressman King should go get some therapy for his melon fixation. I think there might be medication for that. I think he's a mediocre congressman with no legislative record and the only time he makes national press is when he comes out and says something offensive about the undocumented or Hispanics.
. . . This is a man who couldn't even get elected senator in Iowa. That's why he's not running there. This is a man whose district has been polled and supports immigration reform in the majority. So, you know, he is -- this is his call to fame.
~
Republican Strategist Ann Navarro on Meet the Press
Since 2006 Republicans have grimaced and hidden in the corners and asked, 'Oh, what are we going to do about these people on talk radio, these people on cable news that are saying these things that are driving off the very swing voters we need to get elected to the White House again?' They don't have guts to speak out against the extremists. Mitt Romney never had the guts to speak out against the most extreme elements in his party. And he lost, in part because he followed extremists down a rabbit hole in Iowa in a caucus process on immigration and he got slaughtered among Hispanic Americans...
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Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe on MSNBC, via Blue Virginia
There can be honest disagreements about policy without using hateful language. Everyone needs to remember that.
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John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives
I strongly disagree with his characterization of the children of immigrants and find the comments inexcusable.
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Eric Cantor, House Majority Leader
Well, of course, it's hurtful. Of course, it hurts. ... Just, not good.
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Reince Priebus on Steve King's Comments
Rightwingers to Leaders ~ We Don't Need Your Stinking Rebranding!
. . . you have to form a very very strong barrier from people just flowing in like candy. It's no good, you can't have it. We either have a country, or we don't have a country.
~
Donald Trump
The Republican consultants are the ones that are sourcing for this, because they're the ones that believe this. But we've never had a majority of Hispanics or even close. We've never had a majority of blacks. We've never had a majority of transgenders and gays, and we've won. This is hocus-pocus. What a trick! The first big trick that the Democrats succeeded in pulling off was telling the Republicans that they gotta get the independents.
So the Republican candidate, every four years, has a campaign aimed at only 20% of the electorate! You know the sold saw that 40% of the voters are gonna vote Democrat, 40% Republican, and the 20% independent, that's where the election's won. And all these consultants tell these Republican candidates, "I'm the guy that can get you a majority of those Hispanic votes and that's how you win.
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Rush Limbaugh
Tennessee Republican State Rep Scott DesJarlais was presiding over a Tea Party town hall meeting in Murfreesboro, Tennessee this past week, and was approached by a Hispanic girl, eleven-year-old Josie Molina.
Josie took the mic and, with a trembling voice, said to DesJarlais, “Mr. DesJarlais, I have papers but my daddy doesn’t, what can you do to make sure he can stay?”
Josie’s father is currently in deportation proceedings and she is undergoing therapy to deal with the anxiety.
DesJarlais thanked her for the question but said, “the answer remains the same. We have laws and we should follow those laws.” The pro-Tea Party, mostly anti-immigration crowd cheered loudly in approval to his response.
~
Story via Progressive Populist
So the GOP thinks that we must do something to legalize 11 million Mexican criminals. What doe the GOP think about legalizing 11 million American criminals. I am sure they deserve it more than the Mexican do. After all this is their country and it is not the Mexicans country. I would be happier if you would vote to give amnesty to every US citizen charged with a crime that has not been arrested and convicted.
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Cactus Jack on Newsmax
I am still looking for the part the deports the 11 million illegal aliens. We need to enforce our immigration laws. What are they going to do with the parents of kids who are illegal aliens? This is crazy. Just deport all of them. That is the law.
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Charles B. on Time
These establishment RNC bozo's are the last gasp of the Romney campaign. They will be sacked in short order. They do not represent the actual base of republican voters and their position papers are meaningless drivel. Certainly they are irrelevant to those who actually vote in republican primaries. This Rinse Prepube (or whoever) is nobody. He is simply a shill for a few corporate billionaires. He and his politburo prance and strut and deluded themselves that they have power. The establishments greed for cheap labor has got to be crushed. They have no support and they are destroying the republican party..
~
HacimObmed on Time
