Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, one of 2018’s most endangered House Republicans, went on MSNBC to talk immigration immediately following a typical bigot eruption from Kansas secretary of state and Trump voter suppression commission co-chair Kris Kobach. In scrambling to distance himself from Kobach, Curbelo managed to show how you can be opposed to “scapegoating immigrants” and still be morally bankrupt on immigration issues:
“It’s regrettable that some fringe elements in our politics have a sick obsession with scapegoating immigrants, for blaming them for all our economic struggles in this country,” he said, adding if that group wants a “culprit” for “stagnant economic growth,” Kobach and others should look at the country’s tax code and education system.
That “fringe element” is a Republican statewide elected official who has the ear of the current occupant of the Oval Office. Said Oval Office occupant just sent his racist attorney general out to scapegoat immigrants while announcing the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Meanwhile, Curbelo votes with Trump nearly 85 percent of the time, despite Trump having lost his district by 16 points.
So it’s nice that Carlos Curbelo personally thinks scapegoating immigrants is bad. But when he tries to pretend that people who do that are a fringe element of his party and that he doesn’t have anything to do with putting those kind of people in power … he’s full of crap. People like Curbelo prop up the Republican House majority, they help put extremists in positions of power, and it’s not enough for them to say it’s bad to attack and deport and smear immigrants.
Contribute now to take back the House. Carlos Curbelo is one of 23 House Republicans in districts Hillary Clinton won. Can you give $1 to the eventual Democratic nominees in each of those districts?