In a phone interview with conservative radio show host Glenn Beck, who once referred to him as a “dirt bag,” Senator Marco Rubio was asked if he regretted cosponsoring and promoting the 2013 Senate “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill, or as Donald Trump renamed it, “The Schumer-Rubio” plan.
Rubio, who has been back-peddling from his support of the bill, and who now supports a “piece meal” approach to immigration reform, may or may not regret his actions.Glenn Beck: “Do you regret being part of the Gang of Eight?”
Marco Rubio: “I wouldn’t use the word regret. I would say that we learned lessons about reality of where we stand as a country on that issue,” Rubio said. “We’re not going to make any progress as long as Barack Obama is president. We’re not going to solve immigration. And we’re not going to be able to do it in one massive piece of legislation. And the reason being is, people just don’t trust the government will ever do even what the law says. You can pass a law that promises to build a fence. People will say, ‘They’ll never build it.”
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Glenn Beck: We have passed that law
Marco Rubio: “Not only have they passed the law, but then they don’t fund it,” Rubio said. “The lesson I took from all that is, you’re going to have to do it. You can’t pass a law that says it will do it. You’re going to have to do it. And once people see that you’ve done it and illegal immigration is under control, then I think they’ll be willing to talk about what we do next.”
“Whether people like it or not, that is the way it is,” Rubio concluded. “And anyone who doesn’t accept it is simply deluding themselves or they’re lying.”Recent polls have Rubio in the Top 5 in the field of 2016 Republican presidential candidates. Rubio outperforms the entire field in a head-to-head match up with presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
If Rubio fails to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, his support for comprehensive immigration would be the political torpedo that sunk his presidential aspirations.