Scott Walker: ‘I’m Not Taking A Position’ On Birthright Citizenship

Republican presidential candidate, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks during an education summit, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, in Londonderry, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Turns out Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) isn’t so comfortable being grouped in with Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immigration stances after all.

Asked by CNBC’s John Harwood about ending birthright citizenship — an effort Trump has endorsed — Walker said Friday, “I’m not taking a position on it one way or another.”

He added, “Until you secure the borders and enforce the laws, any discussion about anything else is really looking past the very things we have to do.”

Since Trump included in his immigration platform Sunday the elimination of the longstanding practice of granting U.S. citizenship to anyone born on American soil, the issue has split the GOP 2016 primary.

On Monday, Walker called Trump’s plan “very similar” to his. But when asked that same day by MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt whether he supported ending birthright citizenship, Walker waffled on the issue.

First he said, “it’s not right for this country,” and “that’s something we should, yeah, absolutely, going forward…”

But when pressed again by Hunt, he appeared to walk his support back, pivoting to a discussion of “enforcing the laws in this country.”

To confuse matters further, his campaign issued a statement following his comments Monday: “We have to enforce the laws, keep people from coming here, enforce E-Verify to stop the jobs magnet, and by addressing the root problems we will end the birthright citizenship problem.”

Despite refusing to sign on to Trump’s opposition birthright citizenship, Walker embraced other aspects of Trump’s plan.

“A lot of things he’s talked about, I talked about months ago,” Walker said Friday.

Update: Scott Walker took to Twitter to further clarify his views after the CNBC interview.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for chammy chammy says:

    Because I am a weak little pussie who’s afraid to take a stand so I can straddle the fence or until I get orders from my masters

  2. Naw, its easier than that… he’s just a f@#king Pussy.

  3. Avatar for meri meri says:

    “JUST TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO SAY!!!”

    I hope his campaign ends up with him swinging from a noose in the Wisconsin Governor’s Office.

  4. …the longstanding practice of granting U.S. citizenship to anyone born on American soil…

    You’re doing it again, TPM. This is not some ancient, unspoken tradition of the good ol’ USofA. It’s the actual law, a very clearly written Constitutional right. Please stop indicating otherwise.

  5. ‘I’m Not Taking A Position’

    Profiles in courage!

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

69 more replies

Participants

Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for lestatdelc Avatar for jw1 Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for pearlywhite Avatar for feathered_head Avatar for meri Avatar for leftflank Avatar for chammy Avatar for trippin Avatar for yellowdogD Avatar for labman57 Avatar for clearwater Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for johnscotus Avatar for tecmage Avatar for arc_of_the_universe Avatar for ottnott Avatar for cyberduckie Avatar for darrtown Avatar for emilianoelmexicano Avatar for sjk Avatar for vladomatic Avatar for professorpoopypants

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: