CNN Panel Hits Jeb: ‘Very Hard for Him’ After Flip-Flopping on Amnesty
KING: “A lot of Republicans had hoped that this issue would not be first and foremost in their big debates, this cycle. And here's the question I want to ask. I want you to listen. This is -- You mentioned Jeb Bush this week. He said number one the tone, the smearing, he thinks it's broad-based smearing of all undocumented who come in. Jeb Bush says that's not right. The crime statistics don't back it up. But listen to Jeb Bush talking to the union leader in New Hampshire about what he would do about the undocumented, 11 million or so here in the United States.”
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BUSH: “What do we do with the 11 million people here? I think the answer is -- earn legal status. That deal is I think the right balance to deal with this. People came here illegally. There should be a consequence.”
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KING: “People came here illegal, there should be a consequence. That's this past week. This is three years ago.”
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BUSH: “You have to deal with this issue. You can't ignore it and so either a path to citizenship which I would support, and that does put me probably out of the mainstream of most conservatives -- or a path to legalization.”
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KING: “Is it a coincidence? Does Donald Trump have anything to do with the fact that Jeb Bush now stops that legal status when three years ago he said I'm fine with citizenship?”
O'KEEFE: “He's made it very clear that his position has shifted because he understands that the politics have shifted. Now look, he's for legal status. But he has said in the past, you know, if the moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter and Mars aligned, and somehow a bipartisan deal put together a system that included rigorous border security, plus a pathway to citizenship he'd be ok signing that. It's not going to happen. So he's back to legal status. And you know, I think the very simple law and order argument is one that Republicans can now understand. But he's got a 300-page book that lays it out in great detail. And it's very hard for him to back away from that. It is at this point legal status. And it was citizenship. And he admits -- the politics shifted.”
KING: “The politics shifted. And his language is tougher here though. He stops, boom -- there should be a consequence. His language even on status is tougher here.”
