Did Trump Just Whistle a Different Tune on Immigration to The NYTimes? Cruz, Rubio Want the Tape.
And The New York Times says all it needs is permission from Trump.
Buzzfeed reports that an off-the-record meeting between Donald Trump and the New York Times editorial board may have included Trump telling his Manhattan media friends that his views on immigration are more flexible than they appear.
According to Buzzfeed, the recording and transcript from the meeting “have reached near-mythical status at the Times.”
When asked about this, Trump told Fox News today, “Everything — by the way, it is negotiable. Things are negotiable.”
Trump clarified that “building it (the wall),” is not negotiable. But what about deporting millions of immigrants? What about amnesty for many of the illegal immigrants already here?
Trump’s actual record on immigration involves a good deal of flip flopping, according to The Stream‘s John Zmirak. And there is this from The Daily Caller’s Eric Owens:
As recently as 2012, Trump endorsed a broad pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens that is remarkably similar to President Barack Obama’s plan for comprehensive immigration reform.
U.S. immigration policy “must take care of this incredible problem that we have with respect to immigration, with respect to people wanting to be wonderful productive citizens of this country,” Trump told journalist Ronald Kessler in the immediate aftermath after the 2012 election.
He condemned Republicans for “mean-spirited” attacks on illegal immigration and for a “maniacal” policy of self-deportation in 2012. He suggested that hostility on the issue partially cost Mitt Romney the presidency.
Both Cruz and Rubio are calling on the Republican frontrunner to give the Times permission to release the tapes, which the paper says it would do with Trump’s go-ahead. Cruz had this to say:
I call on @realDonaldTrump to ask the New York Times to #ReleaseTheTape: https://t.co/ZiSq8hgq7Dhttps://t.co/DEcZoYP42P
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 29, 2016
And at an Arkansas rally Rubio called for the same thing “so we can see exactly what it is he truly believes.”
If there’s something in the recording that Trump felt comfortable saying privately to Manhattan media, he may not feel the same about sharing it with his angry supporters.
