Thread: Trump Campaign Defends ‘American Hero’ Chris Crane from Marco Rubio’s Screed

by JULIA HAHN
22 Feb 2016
Washington D.C.
689 comments

The campaign of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is speaking out to defend American war veteran and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council President Chris Crane. Over the weekend, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) demeaned Crane, who’s critical of Sen. Rubio’s involvement in the Gang of Eight bill.

“This courageous ICE officer—a man that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has called ‘an American hero’… has served his country in so many different capacities: in the Marine’s uniform, as an ICE officer, [and] as a representative for all of America’s ICE officers,” said Donald Trump’s Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller on Breitbart News Sunday.

Rubio has repeatedly made clear “where his priorities are” on immigration, Miller said— explaining that there are now three lanes dividing the GOP Presidential field: the Governor’s lane, occupied by John Kasich; the frontrunner’s lane, occupied by Donald Trump; and the “amnesty lane,” which is occupied “solely and exclusively” by Sen. Rubio.

Prior to joining the Trump campaign, Miller served as Jeff Sessions’ communications director.

On Friday, Breitbart News published an exclusive interview with Chris Crane, an ICE officer of 13 years and a U.S. Marine, in which Crane said Sen. Rubio treated law enforcement “like absolute trash” during his push to pass his 2013 amnesty bill. On Saturday, Rubio appeared on Fox News and implicitly denounced Crane and his service to the country. “He’s not an ICE official, he’s head of a union,” Rubio said angrily.

Miller, who worked for Sen. Sessions as Rubio sought to push the Gang of Eight amnesty bill through the Senate, explained that: “Chris Crane was a central figure in stopping the Gang of Eight immigration bill from becoming law. He did that in his capacity as the ICE Council President for America’s nearly 6,000 ICE officers and personnel. What that means is that the 6,000 ICE officers and personnel cast a ballot to pick one from among their own ranks to represent them nation-wide… He [Crane] was a central figure in exposing the Gang of Eight bill and stopping it.”

Miller explained that rather than rebutting ICE officer Crane’s specific accusations, Rubio responded by attacking Crane’s integrity:

"Chris Crane made specific, material claims [about Sen. Rubio’s amnesty bill]. So Rubio can either say one of two things on substance. He can either say: (1) ‘No, Chris Crane is wrong the bill is fabulous, it should have passed exactly as is.’ Or (2) [Rubio could say,] ‘He’s right we should have listened to him.’ Instead he [Rubio] went for option three, which is to attack the integrity and decency and morality not just… [of] Chris Crane— who again Sen. Sessions has called ‘an American hero’— but to attack, by extension, all of the ICE officers for whom he speaks."

Miller detailed how Crane has proven himself “over and over” again to be “a man of courage and honor.” Providing listeners with a better understanding of the American veteran Sen. Rubio chose to demean on national television, Miller said:

"I want to explain just a little bit more about why Chris Crane is such an exceptional person. Consider the situation he finds himself in: he represents America’s ICE officers, who are in a political environment in this Homeland Security Department under Obama where they are ordered every day to violate their oath; where they face unceasing pressure from the political chain of command to release criminal aliens and violent people back on the streets and have nothing they can do… And Chris Crane in 2012 spoke out, when precious few did, about President Obama’s first executive amnesty. And he and nine other ICE officers courageously filed a lawsuit to stop President Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty. Think about the courage that takes about how it affects your future career, in terms of how it affects possible political reprisal. Again, Chris Crane has proven over and over that he is a man of courage and honor and decency. And for Marco Rubio to lump him in this group of conspiracy theorists, I just find inexplicable… Historically, I don’t think attacking law enforcement has been a path to the Republican nomination."

Miller confirmed Crane’s account of how Sen. Rubio oversaw as Crane was ejected from the Gang of Eight’s press conference for trying to ask a question on behalf of the nation’s law enforcement. Miller explained that this was “a moment in which the character of Marco Rubio was revealed”:

"I was there at the press conference, as were others… where Marco Rubio allowed Chris Crane to be ejected for asking a question at the press conference… That’s one of those moments when the measure of a man is determined… All of us in our own lives have a moment when we’re tested—where the world figures out who we are and what we are really made of… That was a moment in which the character of Marco Rubio was revealed. He was standing on the stage [next to] Chuck Schumer. This courageous ICE officer—a man that Sen. Jeff Sessions has called ‘an American hero’— who has served his country in so many different capacities: in the Marine’s uniform, as an ICE officer, [and] as a representative for all of America’s ICE officers. He tried to ask a question, Marco Rubio locked eyes with him. And when they came to forcibly remove that ICE officer from the press conference, Rubio had a chance—a moment to stand up and do the right thing—and he didn’t do it. And now having had that fact and many other exposed, Rubio is attacking the integrity of a United States Marine and an ICE officer, who everyday keeps this nation safe. And I hope that Sen. Rubio issues an apology to Chris Crane and to Breitbart News."

Rubio’s treatment of law enforcement and his implicit denunciation of Crane “really has become one of the central issues of the 2016 race,” Miller said.

Miller explained that Rubio’s attack of Crane seems to suggest that Rubio wishes the Gang of Eight bill had passed:

"Here’s an interesting paradox for everybody. Just think about this for a second… Rubio’s tone suggests that he’s mad at Chris Crane. Ok, well Chris Crane helped stop the Gang of Eight bill. But is Rubio therefore saying that he wishes Crane hadn’t stopped the bill, so it could have become law? That’s the implication, right? What he’s saying by implication is: ‘We would have been better off as a country had Chris Crane not spoken out because then obviously it would have been much easier to pass the Gang of Eight bill.’ So he’s sort of caught in a little paradox here because the more he attacks Chris Crane for speaking out, the more he’s saying that he would really have liked to have happened is for the Gang of Eight bill to pass and become law."

When asked if there was anything Sen. Rubio has done to indicate that he now takes law enforcement seriously, Miller gave a review of Rubio’s record:

"The Gang of Eight bill had the following provisions in it: it legalized sex offenders, it legalized gang members, it legalized criminal convicts, it legalized child predators, it legalized people with multiple criminal convictions."

"Chris Crane and other ICE officers asked for all those provisions to be removed. Now, again, Rubio had all of the leverage. Rubio could have gone to Chuck Schumer at any point in time, and say to him, “Hey Mr. Schumer, I can’t support this bill unless we change our minds on this whole amnesty for sex offenders thing. Maybe let’s not give amnesty to sex offenders. I can’t support it unless we make sure that no sex offender in the United States can get amnesty…’ Did he do that? No, he didn’t. And he had all the leverage in the world, if he wanted to. By the way, let’s be real here, how much leverage do you need to tell someone not to give amnesty to illegal alien sex offenders? That doesn’t seem like that should be a thing where you really have to think very hard about it."

Miller explained that even after Rubio’s amnesty bill failed, Rubio has still favored special interests over law enforcement.

"In 2015, Rubio introduced another immigration bill. So he had a chance to give it a second go. He introduced another immigration bill in 2015. And so having wronged Chris Crane, having wronged law enforcement, he had a chance— if he wanted to to make amends— [to] introduce a bill, sit down with Chris Crane that would have helped America’s ICE officers. But what bill did Sen. Rubio introduce in 2015 [instead]? It was legislation to help large corporations replace American workers with foreign guest workers. Was there any security in the bill? No. Any new screening tools? No. Any new ICE resources? No. Just a massive uncapped increase in the number of foreign nationals who could be employed in the United States in place of U.S. workers. So again that shows where his priorities are."

Miller concluded by noting that, at this point in the presidential race, the GOP field can be viewed in terms of three lanes:

"Sen. Rubio is the most pro-amnesty candidate in the race, so he inherits completely and solely and exclusively the mantel of the official amnesty candidate. That is his niche. So you have the Governor’s lane with John Kasich; you have the front-runner [lane] with Donald Trump; and then you have the amnesty lane with Marco Rubio. That’s really a good way of thinking about which candidates are fighting for which votes."

Miller explained that “Sen. Rubio has [also] been an enthusiastic backer of Obama’s sovereignty-crushing trade agenda. Only 11 percent of GOP voters think these trade agreements raise wages. And only seven percent of GOP voters want more foreign workers, so that means that… the two pillars of Sen. Rubio’s agenda: Obamatrade and Obama-immigration—at most— appeal to 7 and 11 percent of the Republican electorate at the high end.”

Thus, in what Senator Sessions has labeled as the two central issue of 2016— issues which in helped launch the current voter revolt— Rubio is the candidate who firmly represents the minority view embraced by the GOP’s donor base, but rejected by its voters.

As conservative icon, Phyllis Schlafly explained, “Senator Rubio is not Main Street’s Obama, he is Wall Street’s Obama: President Obama was a hardcore leftist running as centrist; Senator Rubio is a Wall Street globalist running as a tea party conservative… Rubio is the candidate of open borders, Obamatrade and mass immigration, making one last attempt to pull off one big con.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...rubios-screed/

FLASHBACK: Rubio Called Chris Crane ‘Law Enforcement Official’ in 2013, Now Declares Opposite

by JULIA HAHN
22 Feb 2016
Washington D.C.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has apparently changed his mind on whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council President Chris Crane is an officer. Video from 2013 shows Rubio directly contradicting a claim he made on national television last week regarding Crane.

“We did get input from ICE. I actually met with a gentleman named Chris Crane,” Rubio told constituents in 2013:

"His [Crane’s] frustration, and the frustration of many ICE agents, is that they’re not being allowed to enforce the law… I have nothing but the highest respect for the men and women who are on the front lines of trying to enforce our laws even though sometimes the politicians get in the way."

“We welcome input and ideas from Mr. Crane and other law enforcement officials as the Senate works to improve the proposal,” Rubio’s spokesman Alex Conant wrote in an April 2013 email to Breitbart News. “We want law enforcement’s input.”

In 2013, when it was politically expedient for Sen. Rubio to name-check ICE officer Chris Crane in order to falsely suggest that Rubio had incorporated law enforcement’s input in a bid to pass the Gang of Eight, Rubio did so.

In 2016, when Crane posed a political threat to Rubio and his donor’s efforts to install him in the White House, Rubio implicitly denounced Crane— an ICE officer of 13 years, a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a lifetime member of the American Legion, and a man whom Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)80%
has described as “an American hero.”

Following last week’s release of Crane’s detailed account of how law enforcement was treated “like absolute trash” by Sen. Rubio during Rubio’s effort to ram his donor-backed amnesty bill through the Senate, Rubio appeared on national television and implicitly denounced ICE officer Crane and his service to the nation.

“He’s not an ICE official. He’s the head of a union,” Rubio angrily told Neil Cavuto. Rubio said he would not address Crane’s accusations because it was published by Breitbart News— suggesting that Crane was complicit in pushing “conspiracy theories” about Sen. Rubio’s involvement in the Gang of Eight. “I literally don’t talk about the things they report because they’re basically conspiracy theories and often times manipulated. And that individual is not an ICE official, he’s the head of a union,” Rubio said.

However, this declaration directly contradicts an assertion Rubio told his constituents in 2013.

The footage recorded in April of 2013, was part of that “week’s edition of constituent mailbox.” As Sen. Rubio explains in the video, the footage was one installment of a weekly video put out by his Senate office. “Every week we go into the email box, we go into our mailbox, we pull out some letters or emails that’s indicative of the kind of mail we’re getting, and we read it here on the air and then we answer your questions,” Rubio explained. [The relevant portion begins at 1:09].



In that week’s edition, Rubio read aloud one letter from a constituent named Ross from Melbourne, Florida who asked: “Why isn’t your Gang of Eight calling on ICE for their input into border security?”

“We did get input from ICE,” Rubio said in his efforts to diffuse the criticism leveled by his constituent. “I actually met with a gentleman named Chris Crane, he’s the president of the union for the ICE agents. We met for about an hour, an hour and a half… His frustration, and the frustration of many ICE agents, is that they’re not being allowed to enforce the law… These are valid points that we’ve heard… We have taken their input. We continue to seek their input. And I have nothing but the highest respect for the men and women who are on the front lines of trying to enforce our laws even though sometimes the politicians get in the way.”

Rubio insisted that his Obama-backed amnesty plan would help ICE officers: “I think this is going to help them in the long term,” Rubio said.

In an April 2013 email to Breitbart News Rubio’s chief spokesman—now his campaign spokesman—Alex Conant suggested that Crane is indeed an ICE official:

"Senator Rubio did meet with Mr. Crane, and we welcome his suggestions to improve the bill… Our legislation is not a take-it or leave-it proposition – we welcome input and ideas from Mr. Crane and other law enforcement officials as the Senate works to improve the proposal… Ultimately, we share Mr. Crane’s frustrations with the current, broken immigration system and his frustrations with the current Administration’s failure to enforce our laws. That is why we’re working to fix the system, and why we want law enforcement’s input."

However, as Breitbart News reported at the time, even though Rubio touted his last-minute meeting with Crane after the bill was written, Rubio left the bill unchanged— dismissing all of ICE officers’ concerns. Immediately following their meeting, Crane wrote Rubio a letter in which he said:

"As you know, and speaking on behalf of our nation’s ICE agents and officers, I believe there are many crucial measures missing from this legislation that must be resolved before it is introduced… Based on news reports, it is my understanding that you are filing the bill today… I hope that can be delayed so that our officers and experts can provide real legislative input on the areas we discussed last night: the lack of ICE resources, how current ICE enforcement practices leave the nation open to tactics used by the 9/11 terrorists, DHS directives that release dangerous criminal aliens back into our communities; the need for biometric exit/entry, the administration’s dangerous abuse of prosecutorial discretion, our inability to make street arrests, the breakdown of enforcement in our jails, the disciplining of officers for doing their jobs – these are only some of the many crucial interior enforcement issues not addressed in this legislation."

As Crane explained at a press conference with Senator Jeff Sessions after the bill was introduced:

"Almost one month ago, we asked for a meeting with the Gang of Eight to discuss law enforcement concerns… They told us they weren’t taking meetings but they were meeting all along with special interests and pro-amnesty groups. Finally, after public pressure grew, I got a late Monday night meeting with Sen. Rubio the day before this almost-1,000-page bill was introduced. I raised my many public safety concerns and pleaded with him not to drop the bill until these public safety concerns with law enforcement were addressed. They dropped it anyway… [the bill will] put the public safety at risk without doubt. It fails on interior enforcement, it’s amnesty first, enforcement perhaps never… Unfortunately, I do not believe that the Gang of Eight is a group that we can trust with a matter so important to the safety of American communities and security of our nation."



Indeed, Breitbart News’ reporting at the time confirms Crane’s account of events—namely, that Rubio allowed Crane to be forcibly ejected the Gang of Eight’s press conference when he tried to ask a question on behalf of law enforcement. As Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle reported at the time:

After the press conference, according to The Daily Caller, Crane showed up at the press conference at which the Gang of Eight introduced their bill. He asked the senators if they would take a question from law enforcement. Instead of taking the question, Rubio and the other Gang of Eight senators watched idly and allowed Capitol Hill police to peacefully escort Crane from the press conference. No law enforcement figures publicly endorsed the Gang of Eight bill at that event.

Trump Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller has previously explained that “If you look at the one consistent through line of his [Rubio’s] career, it is that every decision appears to be perfectly calculated to try and open America’s borders.”

When Crane’s status as an ICE officer could help Rubio pass his border opening immigration bill, Rubio went out of his way to cite his meeting with Crane. When Crane’s status as an ICE officer could hurt Rubio’s path to the presidency— a position that would give Rubio more leverage to enact the immigration policies supported by many of his donors— Rubio denounced Crane.

As Crane explained in his interview last week with Breitbart News: “In my opinion, Sen. Rubio absolutely knowingly mislead the American people regarding the bill. He was not telling the American public the truth about what that bill contained… I think it’s clear that open borders and amnesty proponents are trying to buy their way into the White House. I think that if elected President, Sen. Rubio’s Gang of Eight bill will be reintroduced and this time it will pass. Voters beware.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ares-opposite/

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