Then, the former Florida governor was speaking to a friendly audience of establishment Republicans, after re-inserting himself in the immigration reform with the release of a controversial book on the issue a month prior.
But as he moves towards a probable presidential run, and the far less friendly terrain of the GOP primary fight, the comments, which were shared with CNN by Democratic tracking firm American Bridge, are certain to deepen already developing headaches for him — on both the left and especially the right, as conservatives react in a mixture of bewilderment and eye-rolling when confronted with some of Bush’s resurfaced lines on immigration.
“I’ve never felt like the sins of the parents should be ascribed to the children, you know,” Bush said in 2013. “If your children always have to pay the price for adults decisions they make — how fair is that? For people who have no country to go back to — which are many of the DREAMers — it’s ridiculous to think that there shouldn’t be some accelerated path to citizenship.”
He declared that “it’s not possible in a free country to completely control the border without us losing our freedoms and liberties.”
He even suggested the mayor of Detroit — the economically depressed Midwestern city where he’s giving his first policy address of the 2016 campaign on Wednesday — use immigration to “repopulate” the city.
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But if Bush does attempt to move farther right, he risks being labeled at best a flip-flopper and at worst a panderer, and offers fodder for Democratic attacks.
Indeed, Jesse Lehrich, spokesman for American Bridge, accused Bush of “flagrant pandering” to a friendly audience, while veering to the right under different circumstances.
“It turns out that if you put Jeb Bush in the right room, he talks like Ted Kennedy. Put him somewhere else and he’s the ‘head-banging conservative’ he once declared himself,” he said.
“Maybe he doesn’t realize how much has changed in the 13 years since he last ran for public office, but these days, the cameras are always rolling — and flagrant pandering isn’t a good look.”
