Multi-Platform Battle Breaks Out Between Laura Ingraham and ‘Pro-Amnesty’ Sen. Thom Tillis

Nationally syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham was in a back-and-forth with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) Sunday, whom she called a “pro-amnesty” Republican.

The spat began after Tillis appeared on Fox News Sunday to defend an effort by him and other Republican senators to introduce legislation to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from potential dismissal. The move is likely a political signalling exercise, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly described Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt,” a characterization Tillis took issue with Sunday on ABC’s This Week.

Ingraham initially repsonded by questioning Tillis’s understanding of the co-equal branches of government and respect for the president and Justice Department’s authority. She later followed up her criticism by hitting Tillis on his immigration record.

As Breitbart News reported in January, Tillis floated an immigration plan that includes a “path to citizenship” for illegal aliens — a policy widely known as amnesty until its rebranding in sucessive “Gang of Eight” bills in 2007 and 2013 — and left President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals executive amnesty program in place.

Tillis has continued to serve as a conduit for business groups to insert support for DACA and paths to citizenship into Republican immigration plans, saying in March, “Think about [pairing] DACA]with border security…. Think about [pairing more] work visas with E-Verify and other enforcement actions against employers.”

In the same month, Tillis also came out as one of the strongest supporters of expanding the H-2B visa program that allows widespread undercutting of American blue collar workers’ wages by foreign temporary labor.

Senator Tillis’s office did not reply to Breitbart News’s questions on his immigration views and would neither confirm nor deny that he still supported a path to citizenship or DACA. Instead, Tillis took to Twitter, answering Ingraham’s accusation with the naked assertion he is “not pro-amnesty” and questioning her own knowledge of the American system of government.

Tillis is also yet to stake out a position on Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Sen. David Perdue’s (R-GA) RAISE Act, the pro-American worker immigration reform bill that includes no amnesty.