The conservative movement’s leading media icons lined up to back Scott Walker after the media attempted to lynch him for talking tough on immigration.
After being attacked by outlets such as MSNBC, Mother Jones magazine and the Huffington Post, Walker stayed the course, telling the Quad City Times on Friday that American workers had to come first.
“A couple years ago, when the unemployment rate was at incredibly high levels and labor participation was low, why would we want to flood the market with more workers?” he said. “So that would be a time when you would have arguably less. As the unemployment rate goes down and labor participation rates go up, the two have to go hand in hand. Then it could be conceivably more than we have today. So it’s not a set number.”
The New York Times reported that Walker told Glenn Beck that he favored restricting legal immigration in tough economic times and that Friday, answering two young Republicans, Walker asserted, “In terms of how wide or how narrow the door’s open, our No. 1 priority is American workers and American wages. I don’t know how anyone can argue against that.’’
The conservative backlash came after Walker had been pilloried not only by the media but also some establishment Republicans such as Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rob Portman (R-OH).
Matt Drudge headlined the New York Times piece: “Walker Unflinching; ‘Our No. 1 priority to protect American workers and their wages’ …”
Sean Hannity blasted, “If these establishment folks, instead of attacking guys like Scott Walker—if they put half the effort into helping these desperate Americans as they do into helping the people who don’t respect American laws, don’t respect American sovereignty, maybe those people would be back in the labor force and back working again. Also, maybe we wouldn’t be $18 trillion in debt. Scott Walker is right. These Washington bureaucrats have failed in their duty which is to secure our borders and now it’s resulting in a situation where it’s making it harder for our American citizens to find work.”
After one guest on Glenn Beck’s show stated, “Scott Walker is getting beaten up over his interview with us. Not necessarily by conservatives,” Beck stated, “Yeah, I know that. It’s been like four days now. He was on with us Monday and he’s still being beaten up. I saw another story this morning. So for four days he has been beaten up in the press because he said, “I want to protect American jobs and American workers.”
Answering a caller, Mark Levin bluntly stated of Walker that he was unafraid to take a hard stand, asserting: “Let me tell you Maureen, one did make it a couple of days ago, Scott Walker. To his great credit. And guess who’s attacking him? The crazy fanatics who write editorials, nameless editorials at the Wall Street Journal. Are you sick and tired of the Wall Street Journal? Are you sick and tired of Wall Street? I am. I mean we spent a million dollars bailing those guys out and now this Wall Street Journal editorial page is their mouth piece. We know who they want. They want Jeb Bush. We know what they want. They wanted Romney. They wanted McCain. We know who they are. Do you happen to know, Maureen, 25 or 30 years ago, they literally took the position, I have it here, I’ve read it before, that there should be an amendment to the constitution with 5 words, Thou Shall Have Open Borders. Did you know that? … So now they’re attacking Scott Walker. These little creeps who have done nothing. He’s run a state. He’s fought the public sector unions. He’s grown the state economy. And these little jerks sitting there at the Wall Street Journal. ‘We don’t like that.’ Open borders. Yeah, open borders. Open borders, my you know what!”
Laura Ingraham wrote, “Right on cue. No sooner does Scott Walker reiterate a principled and populist stance on immigration — one which would prioritize the jobs and wages of everyday working Americans — than the mainstream media and Establishment pols emerge ready to attack. Leading the pack of Establishment attack dogs is none other than failed former presidential contender, Sen. John McCain (which raises the question: should the GOP really be taking their lead on how to run a successful presidential campaign from John McCain?) McCain’s attack echoes that of the mainstream media which slammed Walker for adopting a so-called “protectionist” immigration policy. But what do all of the attacks against Walker’s immigration platform have in common? Not one of them mentions a single fact about the United States’ current immigration policy. After all, the cardinal rule of mainstream media reporting and Establishment messaging on immigration is to never mention current immigration numbers — under no circumstance, is a mainstream reporter to ever acknowledge that the United States currently admits one million legal permanent residents, 700,000 guest workers, 70,000 refugees, 500,000 student visas and 200,000 spouses of guest workers annually… Scott Walker’s pro-American immigration platform is an incredibly positive development in the 2016 race. It demonstrates that Walker is a leader who is listening to the American people and is prioritizing their needs above the big money special interests and corporatist elites. While other 2016 candidates like Marco Rubio will talk about a need to “modernize” our immigration system (read: import lots of guest workers for open-border billionaires),Walker is the only 2016 candidate talking about creating a legal system of immigration that (finally) puts the needs of American citizens and legal immigrants already here first.”
Michael Savage was brief, and well, savage: “A bunch of rotten villains, every last one of them. They’re all villainous. There’s no other word for it. The American political system is villainous. At this point, the only one I can back is Scott Walker, and I don’t know much about him. I will not back Rubio. He’s a non-entity and never should have run. He’s a clown. Ted Cruz is unelectable. He looks like a weasel and he sounds like a weasel. I don’t care how much you love him. So who’s left. Scott Walker. That’s all.”