Rush Limbaugh on Monday blasted a Sunday
New York Times story that implied he was swayed to go easy on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and the Gang of Eight immigration bill he pushed in 2013.
The story says Rubio and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer met with Roger Ailes, head of Fox News, and Rupert Murdoch, head of Fox's parent company News Corporation, in an effort to convince Fox News that the bill was actually a positive. The meeting supposedly had good results, but Ailes and Murdoch directed the senators to also talk with Limbaugh since he is highly regarded among the conservatives.
On Monday's program, Limbaugh admitted to a dinner between Schumer and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, but says he didn't give in. Rubio was not present, he said.
Graham said during the dinner, which Limbaugh said covered a range of topics, that if Limbaugh called the plan amnesty, "You'll kill it.
It isn't amnesty."
Limbaugh said he clearly didn't buy Graham's argument, because he later coined the nickname "Lindsey Grahamnesty" for the Republican senator.
"I was never under any pressure to agree with it," Limbaugh said, "But Schumer and Graham did put the full-court press."
Schumer and Graham went through all the arguments, including E-Verify, that would help all illegal immigrants be brought out of the shadows.
"There wasn't gonna be immediate citizenship. There wasn't going to be amnesty of any kind. And they were hell-bent on me understanding it," Limbaugh said. "I was polite, and I was civil."
Limbaugh said he was also polite to Rubio when he had him on his show later.
"But the point that the New York Times tried to make is that I went easy on Rubio. Not true," he said. "I had interviews with him, I was civil again, I was polite, because that's just my philosophy in doing this program, particularly if I'm gonna invite people on, I'm gonna be polite to them. I'm civil. I thought that's what everybody wanted in our politics anyway."
But even during interviews with Rubio he expressed his doubts about the plan, he said.
"The first question I asked him, the very first interview I had with him, 'Why are you doing this? Why are we doing this,' meaning Republicans, 'What is the point? Why are we doing this?'" he said. "And I went on to ask, 'Why are we always responding to what the Democrats do? Why can't we just say "no" and forget it? Why do we have to come up with our own version of amnesty?'"
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