Marco Rubio and the White House are in a spat over whether President Obama sought enough input from Republicans in crafting their immigration plan.
Here’s the order of events:
•Rubio spokesman Alex Conant told reporters on Tuesday that “Senator Rubio’s office has never discussed immigration policy with anyone in the White House.”
•Jay Carney disputed that claim in his briefing on Tuesday and a senior White House official told TPM that the White House had met five times with staff from members of the bipartisan Senate group working on a bill, of which Rubio is a participant.
•Conant shot back on Twitter that while the meetings had taken place, the White House “never asked for our input” on a bill.
•But White House officials say that the incomplete version of their bill floating around the press over the weekend was an unauthorized leak, and that they only planned to release legislation if Rubio’s Senate group and its House equivalent fail to produce a bill themselves.
So basically a lot of noise around the definition of “input” and “meeting.” The exchange was part of a broader spat betwen Rubio and Obama over immigration that’s been playing out over the weekend.
