GOP Rep Curbelo: No, Breitbart Is Not ‘a Productive Force in This Country’

On Sunday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “KasieDC,” Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) was asked to react to a story written by Breitbart’s John Binder late last month about his position on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy.

The story laid out how Curbelo “threatened to help Democrats shut down the government” beyond December 31 if the DACA issue was “not resolved.”

Host Kasie Hunt asked based on that piece if Breitbart was a “productive force in this country.”

Partial transcript as follows:

HUNT: Breitbart is writing about your stance here. There’s a headline, “Congressman Curbelo: I Will Vote to Shut Down the Federal Gov’t Unless We Get,” and they call it, “DACA Amnesty.”

Do you think that Breitbart is a productive force in this country?

CURBELO: No, and you asked that very kindly, not at all. And quite frankly on this immigration issue — it’s the extremist on both sides who have prevented a compromise and a solution for years. People on the far right who call this amnesty, even though it’s not. The people on the far left, who believe that this issue is so potent politically that they don’t want it to get solved — they just want to use these young people and we saw that last week when a lot of people were encouraged to go to my office, to Senator Schumer’s office and do a sit-in.

We’re their friends. They should go to the office of the members who haven’t made the commitments that we have. So I reject all of that rhetoric that is dishonest that misleads the American people and tries to show the division and the hatred that we see more and more in our politics in this country.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor