United States presidential race: Clinton, Bush take potshots over immigration

Clinton demurred in discussing the possibility of another Bush-Clinton campaign – Bill Clinton defeated President George H.W. Bush in 1992 – but lumped former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in with other Republicans who have opposed immigration overhauls in Congress.

TRUMP: No, I’m not saying that.

Bush’s team frequently points to Bush’s 300-page book, “Immigration Wars”, when asked for a detailed outline of his position, as they did after Clinton’s comments.

On Wednesday’s CBS This Morning, John Dickerson analyzed Hillary Clinton’s performance in her first national television interview and did his best to stress that her overall trustworthiness issues are really not an issue for her 2016 presidential campaign.

“The next president will pass meaningful immigration reform so that will be resolved – not by executive order”, Bush said during the protest.

(CNN) ex- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on CNN.

“People should and do trust me”, she said, blaming the “barrage of attacks that are largely fomented by and coming from the right” for fuelling such a perception.

Keilar asked if her predecessors had also been subpoenaed, to which Clinton responded, “You’re starting with so many assumptions…”

The Bush campaign rebuffed Clinton’s criticism and instead accused her of flip-flopping on immigration. She’s never turned over a complete set of emails to the State Department and she’s deleted thousands of emails with no second opinion from her own employer.

I have to say, it’s hard to be that deliberately obtuse.

“This is being blown up with no basis in law or in fact”, Clinton continued.

“I trust the American voter 100 percent”, she said, after attributing the perception to Republicans attacking her and her husband.

She quickly pivoted to skewering the entire GOP field for their immigration stance, saying they are on the same “spectrum of hostility”.

Clinton said she would speak out “about the uncontrollable use of guns in our country” and believes most Americans and gun owners support universal background checks. “So I said, ‘Now we have a genuine family feud, maybe we ought to go get that guitar player from Deliverance and get him to play for us.’ Remember that movie? The system is completely broken… but let me tell you how you fix it: Stop talking about it and get Democrats and Republicans to work together”. Whether they want border security only, or legalization or a path to citizenship is irrelevant.

But the dust-up over the remarks, regardless of context, is the latest sign that the general election is heating up unusually early, thanks to Clinton’s status as her party’s presumed nominee.

“I’m going to talk about comprehensive immigration reform”, she promised Tuesday.

On the possibility that 25 years after the first Clinton-Bush presidential race, we could be facing a reprise, with Jeb Bush, Clinton answered with a shrug “Well, we’ll see!” Quite simply, Trump’s remarks were wrong and racist and, considering the mixed history of the GOP on immigration, it is incumbent on them to call him out.