Ex-RNC Boss Removes Support For Immigration Reform From His Web Site

Former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie was an outspoken advocate for immigration reform, including the “pathway to citizinship.” But now that he’s considering a Senate run from Virginia, he’s made, well, a few revisions to his current Web site. We guess he doesn’t want to incur the wrath of Teawingers:

One day before the Senate passed a sweeping comprehensive immigration reform bill in June 2013, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie expressed support for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. But as Politico reported on Tuesday, that video clip was noticeably scrubbed from Gillespie’s website, as rumors swirl that he may make a Senate run in Virginia.

The missing video clip showed Gillespie touting the Senate immigration’s bill’s benefit to the economy, and calling the border security amendment “very strong.” Notably, he supported the “five specific proposals” included in the bill, which would ensure border security. He also noted that “conservative economists” praised the immigration bill because it would “foster economic growth, would result in job creation, and bring down the deficit. And those low-end employees do … migrate upward in the economy.”

It shouldn’t be terribly surprising that Gillespie changed his position with the political winds. In urging the Republican party to support reform after low 2012 Latino support, Gillespie said reform was “an opportunity that should be taken” out of a “survival instinct.”

Gillespie is not the first politician to soften his image on immigration reform, nor is he the first to entirely scrub his website of his viewpoint. For a brief period in 2014, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s (R-VA) “Immigration Reform” webpage dropped any mention of “amnesty,” even though between 2012 to 2013, Goodlatte was blatantly against granting “amnesty to those who have broken our laws and entered the country illegally.” And in 2012, at least three Republicans had milder immigration stances on their Spanish-language webpages on immigration reform than on its English-language counterpart.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.