South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley stated that while Republican presidential candidate Florida Senator Marco Rubio isn’t “for amnesty” she is “against his Gang of Eight bill” on Wednesday’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” on the Fox News Channel.
Haley said that during her response to the State of the Union, “I was talking about a lot of people, certainly Mr. Trump was one of them, but you know, what we learned last year in Charleston was, we went through a lot of challenges, but the way we got through the Walter Scott issue, the way we got through the Mother Emanuel issue, the way we got through the 1,000 year flood was by listening to each other, by making sure that we heard what everyone needed, and then getting there. And so I just worry when we get irresponsible with the way that we talk, our goal is to make everyone feel welcome. Our goal is to make sure we work together. Our goal is to make sure that we have immigrants here coming here legally and not illegally. And so, when you talk about that, you have to make sure that Republicans and Democrats know that their ways of talking, their ways of communicating, has to be responsible.”
Haley added of Trump, “I consider him a friend. He gave me donations in the past, but I disagree with the fact that he wants to start using religion as a way to divide people. That’s not how we’ve ever done things in this country.”
She then turned to her criticism of other candidates, saying you know, “I talked about Marco Rubio. You know, I’m against his Gang of Eight bill. He is not for amnesty, but I was against his Gang of Eight bill. Governor Bush, he supported Common Core, certainly didn’t pass it, but supported it. All those things you bring up because you’re never going to agree with everyone. And you’re not going to agree on all things. But what we want to do is say, look, let’s talk about the issues that matter, and at the end who’s that right person that can step up on most of the issues that we can all agree on?”
Haley further clarified her comments about Rubio, stating that earlier, “what I said was that I didn’t agree with him. I meant what I didn’t agree with him was on the Gang of Eight bill.”
Haley concluded, “I just want him [Trump] to understand that, you know, our country is made up of immigrants, that is the fabric of America. And we want to make sure they’re properly vetted and we want them to come here legally. My parents did that. They paid their way, they paid their time, and they came here legally, and they’ve been productive citizens. We just want to be careful in the way we talk about people, letting them know they are welcome, and for the Republican Party, in particular, it’s important that they know we want more people in our party, not excluding people out of our party.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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