The White House’s deputy spokesman slammed pro-amnesty GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham after the Senator suggested that President Donald Trump’s immigration priorities are determined by one of his aides.
“As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we’re going nowhere,” Graham complained about Miller, who worked with then-Senator Jeff Sessions to successfully sink Graham’s “Gang of Eight” amnesty in 2013. “He’s been an outlier for years,” Graham complained Sunday while telling the reporters that employers in his state of South Carolina need a steady supply of cheap imported workers.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley promptly pushed back at Graham, who has worked with Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and other pro-amnesty advocates to undermine the President’s “Buy American, Hire American” policy:
As long as Sen. Graham chooses to support legislation that sides with people in this country illegally and unlawfully instead of our own American citizens, we’re going nowhere. He’s been an outlier for years.
Gidley’s public rebuke may reduce Graham’s media-magnified influence in the immigration debate.
Graham was with Durbin on January 11 when Trump studied and rejected their huge “Gang of Six” amnesty. Later, Durbin spread the claim that Trump used the word “shithole” when he was criticising immigration quotas for poor African countries. Durbin’s claim caused a scandal and pushed Democrats to block the 2018 stopgap funding bill.
Graham’s claim about Miller echoes the Democrats’ talking points.
In numerous events, senior Democratic leaders taunt Trump by saying he cannot make a deal on immigration, that he keeps changing his views and that relies on his deputies. “Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O. That’s why this will be called the Trump shutdown,” Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Saturday.
The Democrats’ claims fly in the face of the 2016 campaign — where Trump’s much-described immigration policy was a critical reason for voters’ rejection of Hillary Clinton — and are undermined by Trump’s official statements and many immigration-related Tweets.
The anti-Miller theme has been echoed by a growing number of Democratic activists.
Pro-American activists scoffed at Graham’s complaints and suggested that Graham thinks President Trump is so insecure that he can be made angry at Miller.
Graham was a never-Trump during the 2016 primaries, where he tried to support Jeb Bush’s campaign and called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic bigot.”
When meeting with the press, Graham has praised immigration for supplying South Carolina businesses with a steady supply of cheap labor. Graham’s emphasis on cheap labor is rarely mentioned by the establishment media.