Senior Senate Staffer Reveals the Marco Rubio Story You’ve Never Heard

The Associated Press

by JULIA HAHN6 Feb 2016Washington D.C.4444

On today’s program of Breitbart News Daily, Donald Trump’s Senior Policy Adviser, Stephen Miller, shared his never-before publicly discussed insights intoSen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’s duplicitous conduct during his push to get the Gang of Eight bill through the Senate.

At that time, Miller served as the communications director for the man who organized opposition to the bill, SenatorSen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Miller recalled how throughout the Gang of Eight push, Sen. Rubio “directly deceived” immigration law enforcement and the American people.

Miller recounted one story in particular about Rubio’s treatment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) union president Chris Crane, who represents thousands of ICE officers. At the time, Crane slammed Rubio for having “directly misled law enforcement.” In his Congressional testimony, Crane said, “Never before have I seen such contempt for law enforcement officers as what I’ve seen from the Gang of Eight.”

For the first time ever, Stephen Miller explained exactly what Rubio did to Chris Crane and how he had deceived the nation’s ICE officers.

During the Gang of Eight press conference to introduce the bill, Crane had attempted to ask a question. Miller explains that Rubio watched as Chuck Schumer repeatedly refused to allow Crane to ask his question, and Rubio eventually oversaw Crane being removed from the press conference by Capitol Hill security. Miller said that Rubio:

… refused to meet with ICE officers throughout the process [of crafting the bill], even as he was meeting with open border special interests. At the very end, he [Rubio] had an optics-only meeting with [Chris Crane] the representative for ICE officers, in which he made a series of promises, every single one of which he broke and violated directly … When that same ICE officer and Marine went to a press conference to ask a question, Rubio — through his silence — was complicit in Schumer blocking [Crane] from asking a question and allowing him to suffer the indignity of being forced out of a press conference room — a man who had served his country in uniform, as a U.S. Marine — all to spare Rubio from the discomfort of being publicly questioned about why he had broken his promises.

Rubio saw them [Capitol Hill security] take Chris Crane and remove him from the room and said nothing. When he [Rubio] had a chance to show an iota of independence, one scrap of independence from Chuck Schumer, and side with an American Marine and ICE officer — Rubio chose to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm with Chuck Schumer, as an American Marine was forced to suffer the indignity of being removed from Marco Rubio’s Gang of Eight press conference. That’s the story I want to tell today.

Miller’s retelling of the event is as follows:

I would love to tell a story for the first time to your incredible listening audience that I think gives some important insight into Mr. Rubio that I’ve never had a chance to tell before…

I want everyone to step into a time machine and go back to 2013 and remember what it was like. Remember the 24/7 media frenzy. Remember the promises: enforcement first, no welfare, no food stamps, we’re going to have the strongest, toughest border security ever, and, of course, no amnesty– all of these claims, by the way, which are still on Mr. Rubio’s website…

And of course all of those claims were bogus: it gave welfare, it gave food stamps, there was no border security, there was no ‘border security first’… But one of the things that we noticed early on in the process was that Mr. Rubio’s Gang of Eight was meeting with all of the open borders special interests in America: whether it be the Chamber of Commerce, whether it be certain tech corporations, whether it be anti-enforcement groups like La Raza, etc. etc. or the White House, which had an office in the Senate to help push through the Gang of Eight bill, a fact that Mr. Rubio never mentions in his many interviews on Fox and elsewhere promoting the bill. So we said, ‘Let’s get in touch with immigration law enforcement and see if maybe Mr. Rubio would be willing to meet with them.’

So we got in touch with one of the most incredible men that deals with immigration… his name is Chris Crane.

Miller explained that when Crane was finally able to secure a meeting with Mr. Rubio, “Crane had wanted to bring along [a staffer from Sen. Sessions office] who could provide some additional legislative support in the meeting… [however] Rubio’s office, of course, vetoed that completely… The meeting, as Chris Crane described it to me, was fairly horrifying.”

Crane said that he said to Rubio, ‘Well, you know, under your bill criminal aliens get legalized.’

And Rubio would say [in response], ‘Oh no, no, no, that’s the not the case at all.’

And then [Crane] said, ‘Well, under your bill, there isn’t any resources or support for ICE.’

[To which] Rubio said, ‘Oh, don’t worry, we’ll put that in there. We’ll give you, ICE, whatever you need. You’ll get it, you’ll get it, you’ll get it.’

And so Crane said that he obtained a commitment from Rubio to put stuff in the bill that Crane felt that ICE officers needed.

And instead what happened was– only a period of hours later– instead of doing anything that he had promised Chris Crane– a marine, ICE officer– that he would do. In the dead of night, Rubio and the Gang of Eight introduced a bill delivering everything they wanted for the special interests. Now a short time after that Marco Rubio, Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Gang of Eight held a press conference. I decided to go and Chris Crane decided to go to watch the press conference and see what was happening. And so they did this magisterial roll out. All of the supporters of the Gang of Eight bill were up there and the Senators were up there and everyone was slapping each other on the back, and it was ‘Morning in America’ is here again.

Chris Crane, who had just been deceived directly by Mr. Rubio, decided that he wanted to ask a question at the press conference. As a citizen, as a marine, as an ICE officer, as a representative of 7,000 other ICE officers, agents and frontline personnel, he said, ‘I’d like to ask a question at the press conference.’ And I was standing next to him at the time. I believe Chuck Schumer was the one who was at the podium taking questions and Rubio was right next to him.

You know how it is at these scrums, someone shouts their question out, and then someone calls [on them]. And so Chris Crane tried and tried and tried, and everybody could hear him asking: ‘Will you take a question from law enforcement? Will you take a question from law enforcement?’

And Mr. Schumer was up there and Mr. Rubio was up there and they wouldn’t take the question. And everyone in the room… was aware that Chris Crane was trying to ask a question and Schumer wouldn’t call on him….

And I was looking at Mr. Rubio and he looked right at Chris Crane. He saw him there. He had just met with him a few days before, and he saw Schumer refusing to take his question. And instead of stepping up and saying, ‘Of course, we will take a question from a marine, from an ICE officer, and I will happily answer it’– Rubio stood there stone-faced and silent as Schumer refused, refused, refused to take Chris Crane’s question. And then Capitol Hill security came to remove Chris Crane from the venue for having the temerity to ask a question…

Rubio had the chance to step in and say, ‘You don’t need to remove an ICE officer, and marine, from our press conference. Of course, we’ll take his question.’

No, Rubio saw them take Chris Crane and remove him from the room and said nothing. Then later on when he was asked about it in subsequent media interviews he said, ‘Oh that’s unfortunate, they shouldn’t have done it.’ But when he had a chance to show an iota of independence– one scrap of independence from Chuck Schumer and side with an American marine and ICE officer– Rubio chose to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm with Chuck Schumer as an American marine was forced to suffer the indignity of being removed from Marco Rubio’s Gang of Eight press conference. That’s the story I want to tell today…”

Miller concluded:

You have to ask yourself when you’re thinking about who you choose as a Commander-in-chief, how you’d feel about somebody who’s willing to give the Chamber of Commerce everything they want, and willing to give La Raza everything they want … someone who’s willing to give Larry Ellison everything he wants, someone who’s willing to give Microsoft everything they want, and Mark Zuckerberg everything [he wants], but someone who is not even willing to have an honest meeting with ICE officers? You have to ask yourself what game was he playing? What was the goal? What could compel somebody to do that?

Because remember, he had all the leverage. He could have said to Chuck Schumer anytime he wanted to, ‘Mr. Schumer, unless Chris Crane gets what he wants, I’m walking away.’

Remember what Rubio always says when he’s asked about his involvement in the Gang of Eight. He says, ‘Well, I just wanted to get the best bill I could get out of the Senate.’ […] But as this story proves, that statement is materially false because at any point if he had said to Schumer, ‘I’m walking away… unless you give ICE what they want…’ If he had done that, Schumer would have had no choice, but to make those changes. So the fact that he didn’t do that is proof that every time Rubio says, ‘I tried to get the best bill out of the Senate,’ the unfinished part of that sentence is: ‘I tried to get donors and open borders interest groups the best bill for them that I could get out of the Senate.’ And Chris Crane would have been an impediment to delivering for these donors and interest groups.’

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Big Government, 2016 Presidential Race,Immigration, Jeff Sessions, Mark Zuckerberg, Chuck Schumer, gang of eight,La Raza, Larry Ellison, Stephen Miller, Chris Crane

Marco Rubio’s 7 Top Achievements in U.S. Senate

Disney, AP

by JULIA HAHN4 Feb 2016Washington D.C.412

Following Rick Santorum’s inability to name a single achievement of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the media sought to answer the question for themselves. Yet many reporters appear to have come up empty handed.

As The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizzawrites, a “major part of the problem is that Rubio doesn’t have all that many accomplishments in the Senate.”

“When Rubio is asked to name his single greatest achievement in the Senate, do you hear crickets?” tweeted the National Journal’s Ron Fournier.

Though Rick Santorum was unable to name the accomplishments of the man he just endorsed, there are indeed several accomplishments that are quite noteworthy. Below are a few of Sen. Rubio’s achievements that Rick Santorum could have identified on MSNBC this morning:

(1) The Rubio-Schumer Gang of Eight Bill

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York hasdescribed the 2013 Rubio-Schumer bill as Rubio’s “signature accomplishment.” Although Santorum seemed reluctant to mention it, Rubio’s immigration bill is probably the first accomplishment that comes to mind when anyone thinks of Rubio’s very brief career in the U.S. Senate.

Rubio’s immigration bill would have tripled the issuances of green cards, doubled the dispensation of foreign worker visas, and granted citizenship — and, thereby, welfare access and voting privileges — to illegal immigrants.

Reports ranging from the The National Review, to the Tampa Bay Times, to the Washington Post, to the New Yorker have all suggested that the Gang of Eight bill would have likely not passed the Senate if not for Sen. Rubio’s tireless efforts. Indeed, Rubio was the key salesman of the Obama-backed immigration agenda. As Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker reported at the time, Rubio served as “the Gang’s official ambassador to the right,” and was able to convince prominent conservatives to promote the open borders legislation.

Lizza wrote: “[Democratic Senator Bob] Menendez told me that Rubio’s role was to ‘work over the conservative universe, particularly the conservative opinion-maker universe,’ in order to ‘neutralize them’ and, in some cases, ‘proselytize them.’ Schumer said, ‘He’s the real deal.’”

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin told Lizza, “[Rubio] has been invaluable… He’s willing to go on the most conservative talk shows, television and radio, Rush Limbaugh and the rest.”

Moreover, Rubio was also able to successfully strike down all conservative amendments to the Gang of Eight’s proposal. As Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) pointed out, ““Marco and Schumer basically had a secret deal to block all amendments.” Indeed, Rubio joined Chuck Schumer in voting down an amendment offered by Sen. Thune, which would have required the completion of a double-layer border fence. He also successfully defeated an amendment offered by Sen. Vitter, which would require the implementation of an exit-entry tracking system in order to prevent foreign nationals from illegally overstaying their visas.

(2) Obamatrade

Sen. Rubio cast the 60th and deciding vote to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. By giving President Obama fast-track powers, Rubio essentially helped to ensure the passage of not only the TPP, but all subsequent trade pacts, which are now liberated from Senate filibuster, amendment process, and constitutional treaty vote.

This represents a significant legislative victory for the young Senator, who previously endorsed TPP and described Obama’s trade deal as the “second pillar” of a President Rubio’s three-pillar foreign policy strategy.

Moreover, Rubio was also successful in promoting foreign currency manipulation by helping to vote down a provision to crack down on the illicit practice that had been proposed by Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH).

(3) Blocking Curbs to Muslim Immigration

Rubio told Sean Hannity he’d “hate” to block funding for Obama’s refugees, and suggested that curbs on Muslim migration would be unconstitutional. This pro mass-migration offensive helped give Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) the space he needed to wave in a vast new group of Muslim migrants.

Rubio further lent aid and comfort to Paul Ryan by joining a large group of Senators invoting down a proposal offered by Sen. Rand Paul to curb Muslim migration. Sen. Paul’s  amendment would have suspended visa issuances to more than 30 Muslim countries with active Jihadist populations.

Rubio has been one of the most ardent champions for increasing Muslim migration. The U.S. has admitted roughly 1.5 million migrants from Muslim countries since 9/11 on a permanent lifetime basis. Yet Rubio has sought to grow that number vastly. In 2015, Rubio introduced an immigration bill which would have allowed for an unlimited increase in Muslim migration.

(4) Enabling His Corporate Backers to Replace Americans With Foreign Workers

In 2015, Florida Disney laid off scores of Marco Rubio’s constituents and replaced them with low-wage foreign workers brought in on H-1B visas. However, before terminating their American employees, Disney forced Rubio’s constituents to train their lesser-skilled foreign replacements.

If Rubio had spent his political capital in 2013 trying to reform the H-1B program, instead of massively expanding it, he could have saved these careers of these Disney workers, instead of enabling their termination by leading the charge for more foreign workers. In 2013, Rubio’s aide even told Ryan Lizza that “There are American workers who, for lack of a better term, can’t cut it. There shouldn’t be a presumption that every American worker is a star performer. There are people who just can’t get it, can’t do it, don’t want to do it. And so you can’t obviously discuss that publicly because–.”

At this point another Rubio aide jumped in, asserting, “But the same is true for the high-skilled worker,” to which the first Rubio aide replied, “Yes, and the same is true across every sector, in government, in everything.”

Shortly before the Disney workers got the axe, Rubio introduced legislation in January of 2015 to massively expand the H-1B program. Rubio’s 2015 Immigration Innovation Act would have tripled the number of H-1B visas. Interestingly, the bill was endorsed by Disney’s CEO Bob Iger via his immigration lobbying group, the Partnership for a New American Economy. According to Open Secrets, the Walt Disney Corporation is one of Rubio’s biggest financial backers, having donated more than $2 million.

Unfortunately, Rubio’s success in protecting his corporate backers’ ability to increase their bottom line has gone virtually unreported in the corporate media. This perhaps explains why so few are able to list his Senatorial achievements.

For instance, Julia Preston of the New York Times has written multiple articles about the Florida Disney’s H-1B scheme. Yet Preston fails to mention the fact that Florida Senator Rubio introduced legislation to triple the H-1B program, nor does Preston like to mention that Disney is one of Rubio’s financial backers. To demonstrate, here are several stories in which Preston writes about Rubio’s corporate backer replacing Rubio’s constituents with H-1Bs, yet makes no mention whatsoever of Rubio nor Rubio’s H-1B legislation:

Pink Slips At Disney, But First Training Foreign Replacements

In Turnabout, Disney Cancels Tech Worker Layoffs

Lawsuits Claim Disney Colluded To Replace U.S. Workers With Immigrants

Disney Has No Comment On The Recent Reversal of Layoffs

Senator Seeks Inquiry Into Visa Program Used At Disney  [The Senator mentioned here in Preston’s story is Florida’s Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). In contrast to Sen. Rubio — who provided cover to Disney’s cheap-labor practices by pushing to expand H-1Bs — Sen. Nelson joined Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to propose legislation that would reduce the number of H-1Bs and eliminate visas for low-wage jobs. Preston’s story makes no mention of Sen. Rubio nor his desire to expand H-1Bs.] 

(5) Blocking Food Stamp Reform

In 2011, Marco Rubio voted against a Republican proposal which the Congressional Budget Office projected would save the U.S. government $10 billion by reining in the abuse of the food stamp program. The measure was backed by almost all Republicans and opposed by virtually all Democrats. The measure, as Sen. Jeff Sessions explained when he proposed it, would have eliminated what is known as the “categorical eligibility” for food stamps, which makes people “automatically eligible” to receive government benefits even if that household has “substantial assets.” Rubio was one of only seven Republicans to oppose the measure, but his no vote helped stall momentum for food stamp reform– which remains elusive.

Rubio’s campaign did not respond to Breitbart’s request for explanation as to why Rubio voted against the 2011 food stamp reform.

(6) Benghazi

As George Will pointed out, Sen. Rubio gave his “enthusiastic support of the Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton intervention in Libya.” Indeed, as the Washington Examiner wrote at the time in a piece entitled “Rubio takes the lead to support Obama’s war in Libya.”

“Rubio proposes that the Senate authorize the president’s use of force in Libya, and that the authorization state that the aim of the use of force should be the removal of the Qaddafi regime,” the piece said.

George Will notes that “Rubio supported this third adventure in regime change in the Muslim world since 9/11, perhaps on the principle that practice makes perfect.”

The destabilization and chaos that resulted from the overthrow of Qaddafi not only provided an operating ground for ISIS, but also provided the conditions that led to the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

(7) Worst Attendance Record

Reports note that Sen. Rubio has amassed one of the worst attendance records in the Senate, which is quite an achievement. The Washington Post writes, “Since the beginning of the year, Marco Rubio has cast votes about two-thirds of the time he could have — the worst attendance of any senator seeking a presidential nomination.” The Sun Sentinel editorial board noted, “Rubio has missed more votes than any other senator this year. His seat is regularly empty for floor votes, committee meetings and intelligence briefings. He says he’s MIA from his J-O-B because he finds it frustrating and wants to be president, instead… But two other candidates — Sens. Rand Paul andSen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — have missed only 10 Senate votes during their campaigns for the White House. You, on the other hand, have missed 59, according to a tally by Politico.”

By contrast, Iowa’s Sen. Chuck Grassley set the record for the “longest temporal stretch of perfect attendance in senatorial history,” as Roll Call reported earlier this month. Roll Call notes that the Senator has “not missed a recorded vote in 22 years, six months and six days.”

—

Given the media’s reluctance to report on the young Senator’s achievements, it is perhaps understandable why Santorum was unable to identify any of Rubio’s achievements when put on the spot.

Although the media seems loath to report it, Sen. Rubio has been one of the most ardent and successful champions of the donor-class’s open borders trade and immigration agenda. While other establishment Republicans such as Jeb Bush, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), or Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have been unsuccessful in promoting the donor-class’s priorities, Rubio has repeatedly demonstrated his adept ability to deliver for his donors — evidenced by his ability to win praise from prominent conservatives like Rush Limbaugh even as he pushes policies that Limbaugh and others have warned would wipe out conservatism.

This perhaps explains why Rubio’s campaign has been enthusiastically embraced by some of the most powerful mass migration advocates, like Paul Singer and Larry Ellison.

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Big Government, 2016 Presidential Race,Benghazi, Jeb Bush, John McCain, Rush Limbaugh, Lindsey Graham, H-1B, Paul Singer, Larry Ellison, Rich Santorum