Priebus struggles to explain GOP immigration messages

After Republicans sent mixed signals on immigration in their two official rebuttals to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus struggled to explain the disparity on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Wednesday.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst’s State of the Union rebuttal made no mention of the topic, but the Spanish-language version of the rebuttal, delivered by Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, said Republicans wanted to work with Obama to fix the immigration system.


“I don’t think it’s that strange to have multiple people giving multiple responses,” Priebus said Wednesday on the show.

But earlier on Tuesday, House Republicans had described Curbelo’s response as “the Spanish-Language translated address of Sen. Joni Ernst response.” That language was later removed from the release, according to Mother Jones.

When asked why Ernst’s English-language response made no mention of the issue, Priebus responded, “I think the president’s kind of screwed things up in regards to immigration reform by overreaching, by taking his executive action.”

When pressed further on how that explained the disparity, Priebus said, “I think we’ve been talking about this executive amnesty action that the president’s taken illegally for a long time and I think until that gets resolved it’s very difficult to go back and conduct any other kind of immigration reform. Look, I’m not the policy guy.”

Speaking in Spanish Tuesday night, Curbelo said, “We should also work through the appropriate channels to create permanent solutions for our immigration system, to secure our borders, modernize legal immigration, and strengthen our economy. In the past, the president has expressed support for ideas like these. Now we ask him to cooperate with us to get it done.”

Curbelo has bucked many in the Republican Party to support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, while Ernst opposes that.

In an interview after the speech, Curbelo said he chose to focus on immigration as well as other issues personally important to him — such as education and Cuba — aside from the party’s broader economic message that was reflected in Ernst’s rebuttal.

He had asked for a copy of Ernst’s prepared remarks a few days in advance of Tuesday’s address, and then made his own additions, including the references to immigration. Leadership saw the remarks beforehand and were fine with them, Curbelo said. “I did not get any pushback whatsoever.”

A Republican leadership aide confirmed Curbelo’s account.

“That’s a shame that Democrats would try to criticize us for each of us having our own priorities and ideas and making them known,” Curbelo added. “I think leadership should be commended for encouraging those it selects to talk about their lives, their priorities and their vision.”