Earlier this month, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was pummeled by the internet when this video showing him running away from DREAMers went viral.
And now we know why he ran. From today’s headlines:
Ed Kilgore comments at Washington Monthly (in a piece called “Rand Paul Returns to Steve King’s Table):
Any way you look at it, the GOP has lurched radically in a nativist direction since that long-lost day when the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill with support from 14 Republicans…
So much for the candidate of “minority outreach.” You now have to wonder why Rand Paul bothered to leave Steve King’s table when America’s leading nativist was confronted by DREAMers—unless he was embarrassed by his own future positioning.
Adds Steve Benen at MSNBC:
This latest posture will permanently ruin the senator’s relationship with much of the Latino community. By endorsing the reactionary House package, Paul isn’t just focusing on migrant children who recently fled Central America; he’s specifically endorsing a plan that targets Dream Act kids for deportation. We’re talking about youngsters who’ve been here for years and who see the United States as the only home they’ve ever known…
Confronted with the possibility of becoming the most aggressively anti-immigration party Americans have seen in generations, leading Republicans, including Rand Paul, have embraced the label with shocking enthusiasm.
