Trump Camp Insists Nominee Hasn’t Flip-Flopped On Immigration Policy

Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Mike Pence, R-Ind., addresses supporters during a campaign event in Novi, Mich., Thursday, July 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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Representatives for the Donald Trump campaign on Sunday claimed that the Republican nominee has not shifted his stance on immigration but were unable to provide details about Trump’s policy on deportation.

During an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said that Trump has not shifted his position on deportation.

“He’s pretty consistent. And immigration is a very complex issue,” she said, listing tenets of Trump’s immigration plan like building a wall and enforcing immigration law.

She added that deportation under Trump will be “fair and humane.”

But when host John Dickerson asked Conway how Trump would deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country, Conway would not offer details.

“That’s really the question here,” she responded. “He has to deal with those agencies and those individuals are are already responsible for this who aren’t doing the jobs.”

And during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” vice presidential candidate Mike Pence said that “nothing has changed about Donald trump’s position on dealing with illegal immigration.”

“His position and his principles have been absolutely consistent,” he said.

“There will be no path to legalization, no path to citizenship unless people leave the country. He’s said that very consistently,” Pence added.

Host Jake Tapper then asked Pence whether Trump would deport all undocumented immigrants from the U.S. with a “deportation force.”

“What you heard him describe there, in his usual plain-spoken American way, was a mechanism, not a policy,” Pence replied. “You’re going to hear more detail in the next two weeks that lays out all the policies, but there will be no change in the principle here.”

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  1. Avatar for cmj cmj says:

    Well. I may agree with them because you can’t flip-flop on something that never really existed to begin with…

  2. We can confirm that his campaign has done a lot of flopping over the past few weeks.

  3. A “mechanism not a policy” – wtf does that even mean? If you say there should be a certain “mechanism,” then that"s your “policy.”

    Gonna have to spin harder than that, spinners.

  4. He hasn’t flip-flopped on the position we can’t describe because it’s so ultra-complex but he’s using different words about the mechanism in his plain-spoken American way but the principles haven’t changed.

    OT but does anybody else find it eerily adorable when Trump portentously announces he’s going to make a “major speech” on such and such a topic? It’s like a 5-year-old playing grownup, sounding all pretend-serious. Odd in an actual grownup, of course, but still cute in a very weird way.

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