A fight over illegal immigration between Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz revealed the larger fault lines in the burgeoning Republican rivalry during Saturday’s GOP presidential debate.
After Rubio declared that he has never and will not support “amnesty” for illegal immigrants, Cruz pointed to the Florida senator’s comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
“When it comes to deciding which side of the line you’re on, the Rubio-Schumer amnesty plan, apparently supported by the donor class which is why Washington supported it,” Cruz said as the audience booed. “The Rubio-Schumer amnesty plan passed the Senate and it was on the verge of passing the House.”
Rubio exasperatedly responded, saying “We’re going to have to do this again.” Rubio then listed Cruz’s past statements and actions supporting higher levels of immigration.
“He either wasn’t telling the truth then or he isn’t telling the truth now, but to argue he’s a purist on immigration is just not true,” Rubio said.
Cruz replied by arguing that “Marco supports citizenship for 12 million people here illegally,” and mentioning a Spanish-language interview that Rubio did.
After belittling Cruz’s fluency in Spanish, Rubio called Cruz a liar.
“This is a disturbing pattern now because for a number of weeks now Ted Cruz has just been telling lies,” Rubio said. “He lied about Ben Carson in Iowa. He lies about marriage. He’s lying about all sorts of things and now he makes things up. The bottom line is this is a campaign and people are watching it and people see the truth behind all these issues.”
Rubio and Cruz spent much of the early portion of the debate individually tussling with Donald Trump, but eagerly hit each other when given the opportunity.
