Chuck Todd Grills Rubio on Illegal Immigration

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: 
TODD: "And senator Marco Rubio joins me now. Senator, welcome back to 'Meet the press.'"
RUBIO: "Thank you." 
TODD: "You just had a nice friendly hug with senator Cruz there. That’s not such iendly ad here. It goes to the issue of the gang of eight."
RUBIO: "Actually — no, no, let me -" 
TODD: "Can you explain the issue of amnesty? Define amnesty?"
RUBIO: "The ad is deceitful, actually talks about cap and trade, it stops my statement right when I start explaining that I’m against cap and trade and big government mandates. The gang of eight was a bill that was — that’s not — that was dealt with three years ago as an effort to fix our immigration laws. It was the best that could be done in a Senate controlled by Harry Reid at the time. The hope was that the house would take it up and make it better, but it was a way to start that. In the absence of progress that’s how Barack Obama has now forced on America not one but two unconstitutional executive orders that seek to actually legalize people here with no enforcement. Now, that’s not the way we’re going to do it when I’m president. When I’m president, when I’m the nominee, we’re going to keep our majority in the house and Senate and we’re going to pass first and foremost immigration laws that secure our border. And until that is in place, we’re not going to be able to do anything else. That’s the lesson of the last ten years. The American people we do not have the political support to do it all at once. They do not trust the federal government to enforce immigration laws. And as a result the key that unlocks the door to make progress on illegal immigration is to bring illegal immigration under control first. And we will do that when I’m president."
TODD: "I’ve had a lot of Republicans in Iowa that I’ve talked to who really like you and then they say why won’t he repudiate the gang of eight?"
RUBIO: "That’s not how we’re going to do it when I’m president. That’s not going to be the law that we’ll pass —" 
TODD: "Do you regret ever being involved?"
RUBIO: "Look, I tried to fix a problem. This is a real problem. Where are we today? We are worse off today than we were five years ago. We have more illegal immigrants here. We have two unconstitutional executive orders on amnesty. I went to Washington to fix a problem. Immigration is a serious problem. It impacts my state and the state that I live in. We are impacted by illegal immigration in a dramatic way. This issue has to be dealt with. Each year it gets harder to solve, more difficult to solve, but it is now clear more than ever before that you are not going to be able to do anything on immigration until you first bring illegal immigration under control and prove it to people. Not just pass a law that says it and that’s how we’re going to do it when I’m president."