In what could arguably be seen as another debate debacle for Marco Rubio, the Florida Senator seemed to confirm Phyllis Schlafly’s assertion that he is “back to his old ways” of deceiving conservatives on immigration.

In response to attacks leveled against him by Ted Cruz, Rubio made a demonstrably and provably false declaration about his position on President Obama’s executive amnesty. Rubio even accused Cruz of “telling lies” about his position on executive amnesty– even though nationally-televised video footage of Marco Rubio confirms Cruz’s allegation, and reveals that Rubio lied in front of a nation-wide viewing audience during tonight’s debate.

Cruz said: “Marco right now supports citizenship for 12 million people here illegally. I oppose citizenship… Marco has a long record when it comes to amnesty. In the state of Florida, as Speaker of the House, he supported in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. In addition to that, Marco went on Univision in Spanish and said he would not rescind President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty on his first day in office. I have promised to rescind every single illegal executive action, including that one.”

Cruz was referring specifically to President Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty for illegal immigrants who allegedly came to the country as minors. The unconstitutional amnesty known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals– or DACA– remains fully operational to this day. DACA not only gives illegal immigrants immunity from deportation, but also grants them work permits and access to federal benefits.

Indeed, video footage of Sen. Rubio confirms Cruz’s assertion. In an April Spanish-language interview, Rubio told Univision’s Jorge Ramos: “I wouldn’t undo it [DACA] immediately.” Rubio elaborated in English, telling Ramos: “I don’t think we can immediately revoke that [DACA]… I’m not calling for it to be revoked tomorrow, or this week, or right away.”

Yet Rubio– seemingly comfortable in the knowledge that the debate moderators would not be presenting any actual information on Rubio’s immigration record– simply denied Cruz’s charge, despite the existence of a readily available transcript which confirms Cruz’s claim. Rubio argued that Cruz didn’t know what he was talking about because– unlike Rubio– Cruz is not fluent in Spanish.

“First of all, I don’t know how he knows what I said on Univision because he doesn’t speak Spanish,” Rubio said in response to Cruz’s accusation.

Asserting that non-Spanish speakers will never find out what you promise Spanish-speaking voters so long as you promise it in Spanish, is a curious tactic for someone who has been accused of telling voters one thing in English and another thing in Spanish. Rubio is essentially acknowledging that if he delivers a message in Spanish, English speakers won’t be able to catch on to what he’s saying.

Rubio then accused Cruz of fabricating the entire account: “Look, this is a disturbing pattern now, because for a number of weeks now, Ted Cruz has just been telling lies. He lied about Ben Carson in Iowa. He lies about Planned Parenthood. He lies about marriage. He’s lying about all sorts of things. And now he makes things up.”

However, video footage confirms Cruz’s accusation– and suggests that it is Rubio who is “telling lies” about his record.

Indeed, in both Spanish and English language interviews, Rubio said that he would not “immediately” rescind Obama’s unconstitutional 2012 executive amnesty. Rubio even said that his “ideal” plan would be to leave Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty in place until Rubio’s long-sought after legislative amnesty can replace it– i.e. Rubio has the same position on DREAMer amnesty as does President Obama.

RUBIO’S SPANISH-LANGUAGE UNIVISION INTERVIEW

In April of last year, Rubio appeared on a Spanish-language interview with Jorge Ramos and said that he would not “undo” Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty “immediately”.

It is perhaps bizarre that Rubio would now try to deny the existence of this exchange, since Rubio’s campaign– in an on-the-record interview with Breitbart News — confirmed the Univision translation of Rubio’s comments.

According to the Univision transcript, Rubio said in Spanish:

Well, DACA is going to have to end at some point. I wouldn’t undo it immediately. The reason is that there are already people who have that permission, who are working, who are studying, and I don’t think it would be fair to cancel it suddenly. But I do think it is going to have to end. And, God willing, it’s going to end because immigration reform is going to pass.

This is not the first time Rubio has been caught in linguistic amnesty games before. As Phyllis Schlafly has pointed out, in 2013 Rubio told Rush Limbaugh that, under the Gang of Eight bill, border enforcement would precede amnesty. However, “Rubio had a different message in Spanish media. As Byron York reported: ‘Let’s be clear,’ Rubio said. ‘Nobody is talking about preventing the legalization. The legalization is going to happen. That means the following will happen: First comes the legalization. Then come the measures to secure the border. And then comes the process of permanent residence.’”

In April of 2015, following the Senator’s Univision interview, Rubio’s campaign suggested that a President Rubio’s DREAMer amnesty would precede border security. As Breitbart News previously reported: “The chief spokesman for the presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said in an on-record interview with Breitbart News that the senator, if elected president, would not require a secured border before he gives legislative and permanent amnesty to recipients of President Barack Obama’s first executive amnesty, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program… ‘I mean when we were working on the 2012 bill, that was independent of the border,’ [Alex] Conant said. ‘These are the kids that already — I mean, the kids are in a very unique situation because they didn’t willingly break the law.’”

RUBIO’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE UNIVISION INTERVIEW

Rubio reiterated his desire not to rescind DACA immediately in an English-language interview with Jorge Ramos in April. Rubio said “DACA… applies to young people that arrived in this country at a very young age before they were adults and I don’t think we can immediately revoke that… I’m not calling for it to be revoked tomorrow, or this week, or right away.”

“I think it will have to end at some point and I hope it will end because of some reform to the immigration laws,” Rubio said in English.

As Breitbart News has previously explained, this is the same policy supported by Barack Obama: namely that the President ought to leave the executive amnesty for DREAMers in place until Congress submits to the order by legislatively ratifying amnesty. After a legislatively ratified DREAM Act, illegal aliens would be able to vote in U.S. elections and bring their relatives to work and collect entitlements in the United States.

Indeed, even the similarity of Rubio’s rhetoric to that of President Obama’s is striking. President Obama told Congress: “if folks are serious about getting immigration reform done [they should be] passing a bill and getting it to my desk. And then the executive actions that I take go away.”

Another striking feature of Rubio’s declarations regarding DACA is that, like much of Rubio’s rhetoric, he relies on repeat verbal constructions that have the effect of sounding highly rehearsed.

In November of last year, Rubio elaborated on his support for DREAMer amnesty. Rubio told reporters at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire that his “ideal way” of transitioning out of Obama’s amnesty would be for it to be “replaced by a reform system that creates an alternative.”

“The ideal way for it to end is that it’s replaced by a reform system that creates an alternative,” Rubio said.

In other words, Rubio is saying that there is no situation in which illegal aliens are not authorized to fill American jobs. In Rubio’s mind, it is just a question of when the legalization transitions from an executive amnesty to a legislative amnesty.

—

While Rubio dismissed Cruz’s assertion as “lies,” Rubio noticeably declined to say whether he would immediately terminate Obama’s DREAMer amnesty. Rubio also avoided addressing Cruz’s correct assertion that Rubio “right now supports citizenship for 12 million people here illegally.”

Similarly, none of the debate moderators challenged Rubio on the substance of Cruz’s claim– nor anything else of substantive on the subject of immigration. Neither John Dickerson, Major Garrett nor Kimberley Strassel of the open borders Wall Street Journal editorial board asked Rubio whether he would rescind DACA immediately.

Instead, Major Garrett asked Rubio if he could “define amnesty.” However, in his questioning, Garrett failed to note that Rubio had offered an amnesty bill in 2013– in essence, Garrett gave pro-amnesty Rubio a free opportunity to explain how he is allegedly not for amnesty—just as he did throughout his Gang of Eight push.

John Dickerson asked Rubio: “Is it the case that in your list of accomplishments you can’t mention that [i.e. the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform]?” Rubio replied by saying that the Gang of Eight’s so-called “immigration reform” was not an accomplishment because “it didn’t pass.”

Dickerson did not follow up with his question to explain that the Gang of Eight did pass the Senate and would have passed the House if not but for a grassroots rebellion against the plan. Dickerson similarly failed to point out that Rubio still supports all of the substantive policies outlined in the Gang of Eight bill.

As Trump’s Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller has explained, there are “three core provisions to the Gang of Eight bill: (1) citizenship for illegal aliens, (2) massive expansions of foreign guest worker programs, and (3) large expansions to the rate of permanent annual immigration. He [Rubio] is in favor of and is campaigning in favor… of all three of those provisions. Everything else is just details. That’s the core essence of the Gang of Eight bill, that’s the core essence of Rubio’s immigration platform today, that is the core essence of what he’ll do as President.”

“The one consistent through line of his [Rubio’s] career, it is that every decision appears to be perfectly calculated to try and open America’s borders,” Miller has said. He is the “front man for the open borders syndicate… Rubio is determined to finish what he started with the Gang of Eight bill and to be President Obama’s third term on immigration.”

Miller explained that the reason Rubio can’t apologize for his role in pushing Obama’s immigration agenda through the Senate is because “he believes to this day in everything that’s in the Gang of 8 bill and wants to be in the Oval Office so that he can implement everything in the Gang of 8 bill… The reality is that Rubio is proud of the Gang of 8 bill. And his pride for the product, for the contents of the product, is so intense that he can’t bring himself to even pretend to be remorseful about it.”

Phyllis Schlafly has pointed out that “Rubio’s entire career rests on the fact that no one will question his syrupy scripted bites and homeroom-president style rehearsed speeches… Rubio would have a much, much better chance than Obama of getting an open borders bill through Congress — while Boehner could refuse to bring up Obama’s mass immigration/amnesty bill for vote in 2014, Ryan would never refuse Rubio’s bill. Rubio’s presence, as it did with the Gang of Eight, would create the cover for both certain Republicans and all Democrats to get behind a far more open borders plan… There is likely no person in the United States of America in a better position to enact mass immigration legislation than a President Rubio.”

Rubio’s demonstrably false declaration tonight regarding his record on executive amnesty could arguably be a campaign-ending misstep. However, Fox News’ enthusiastic reception of another Rubio debate performance in which he concealed his immigration record suggests that corporate media will be able to paint over the remarkable moment and can continue to boost Rubio’s floundering campaign.