Conservative media is having a meltdown over a bombshell report by The New York Times that Fox News conspired with Marco Rubio to grant amnesty to illegal aliens.
Immigration has become on of the hottest topics among the slate of Republican presidential contenders. As one might expect, the hopefuls are taking a hard line approach to immigration reform with Marco Rubio taking substantial heat for his role in what is called the “Gang of Eight,” a bi-partisan group of eight United States Senators who wrote the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) bill. The group was also instrumental in bringing Comprehensive Immigration Reform back to the legislative branch in the spring of 2013.
The bill, known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 would:
- Make it possible for many undocumented immigrants to gain legal status and eventually citizenship.
- Advance talent-based immigration through a points-based immigration system.
- Include a $1.5 billion youth jobs program and repeal the Diversity Visa Lottery in favor of prospective legal immigrants who are already in the United States.
The New York Times reports that Marco Rubio was accompanied Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the sponsor of the bill, to a meeting with Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes at the executive dining room of News Corporation’s Manhattan headquarters.
According to The New York Times: “Their mission was to persuade Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the media empire, and Roger Ailes, the chairman and chief executive of its Fox News division, to keep the network’s on-air personalities from savaging the legislation and give it a fighting chance at survival.”
“Mr. Murdoch, an advocate of immigration reform, and Mr. Ailes, his top lieutenant and the most powerful man in conservative television, agreed at the Jan. 17, 2013, meeting to give the senators some breathing room,” effectively granting the request by Rubio and Schumer.
However, “highly attuned to the intensifying anger in the Republican grass roots,” Murdoch and Ailes “warned that the senators also needed to make their case to Rush Limbaugh, the king of conservative talk radio, who held enormous sway with the party’s largely anti-immigrant base,” according to The New York Times.
Rubio was eventually selected for the task by the other Senators on the committee and, as The New York Times reports, this solidified Rubio’s role as “the chief envoy to the conservative media for the group supporting the legislation.”
The dinner at News Corporation headquarters — which has not been previously reported — and the subsequent outreach to Mr. Limbaugh illustrate the degree to which Mr. Rubio served as the chief envoy to the conservative media for the group supporting the legislation.
According to The New York Times, “Details of the dinner, and a previous one in 2011, were provided to The New York Times by an attendee of one of the meetings and two people with knowledge of what was discussed at both get-togethers.” They add that: “None of the attendees agreed to be identified for this article because the conversations were supposed to be confidential.”
You can go here to read the full article by The New York Times, entitled: “Marco Rubio Pushed for Immigration Reform With Conservative Media.”
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