Thread: Morning Plum: Megyn Kelly nails it on why Donald Trump matters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...entrandom_2_na

Morning Plum: Megyn Kelly nails it on why Donald Trump matters

By Greg Sargent August 26, 2015

Call it the Trump Challenge: Will the Donald’s GOP rivals be as specific as he has on the question of what should happen to the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country? Trump’s position is clear, or at least somewhat clearer than that of many Republicans: He would deport them all in a “very humane fashion.”

Trump’s GOP rivals are now getting pinned down on the question of whether they agree with him on this and other immigration matters. Here’s a very good example. Fox News’ Megyn Kelly grilled Senator Ted Cruz on whether he agrees with another aspect of Trump’s plan — the pledge to do away with birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants born here. Here’s Politico’s account:

“What would President Cruz do? Do American citizen children of two illegal immigrants, who are born here, the children, get deported under a President Cruz?” Kelly asked.

Donald Trump, she said, “has answered that question explicitly.”

“Megyn, I get that that’s the question you want to ask,” Cruz said. “That’s also the question every mainstream media liberal journalist wants to ask.”

Asked whether it is an unfair question, Cruz said that it is “a distraction” from solving the issue.

“You know, it’s also the question that Barack Obama wants to focus on,” Cruz retorted.

“Why is it so hard? Why don’t you just say yes or no?” Kelly asked.

Cruz’s response: “Because, Megyn, we need to solve the problem. And the way you solve the problem is you focus where there’s bipartisan agreement first. Once we’ve secured the border, once we’ve proven we can do this, once we’ve stopped the Obama administration’s policy of releasing 104,000 violent criminal illegal aliens in one year. Once we’ve solved that problem, then we can have a debate, then we can have a conversation.”

Cruz’s dodge — he says we have to secure the border before we can even discuss Kelly’s question — is very similar to the approach Scott Walker has taken. As I’ve said before, I think Trump’s GOP rivals should be pressed more on whether they agree with his vow to deport 11 million than on whether they agree with him on birthright citizenship, because the problem of what to do about the 11 million is the core dilemma underlying our impasse on this issue. Most of Trump’s GOP rivals continue to fudge on that core question.

But Kelly is absolutely right to note, in the context of the birthright citizenship debate, that Trump has answered questions “explicitly,” while Cruz won’t. This illustrates, once again, that Trump’s immigration plan, if you can call it that, has had the effect of making GOP evasions on the overall immigration issue much harder to sustain.

About 58 percent of mentions of Mr. Trump in mainstream news media — broadcast, cable, radio and online outlets — in the past month have focused on immigration, while on Spanish-language news programs, the proportion is almost 80 percent, according to an analysis by Two.42.Solutions, a nonpartisan media analytics company.

What remains to be seen is whether Trump’s bluster will color Latinos’ views of the GOP, and how far the eventual nominee will have gravitated towards his positions along the way.

This article is a month old, but I don't remember seeing anything about this interview with Ted Cruz posted, so thought it should be.