Alan: The great thing about Trump is how he reveals the unspeakable vility of American conservatives.
We Are Known By The Company We Keep: Evangelicals LOVE Trump
Chilling Trump video attacks Bush for calling illegal immigration ‘act of love’
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump released a chilling video Monday attacking opponent Jeb Bush for once suggesting that undocumented immigrants entered the United States as "an act of love."
The 15-second video, which Trump posted to Instagram and Twitter, begins with the text: "Jeb Bush's Thoughts on Illegal Immigration."
It plays sound of Bush, a former Florida governor, saying of undocumented immigrants, "Yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony. It's an act of love."
Over the sound of Bush talking, with harrowing music playing, the Trump video flashes mug shots of Francisco Sanchez, who was charged in the San Francisco killing of Kate Steinle; Santana Gaona, a Texas man found guilty of a murder; and Brian Omar Hyde, who was charged with three killings in Florida.
Then the screen turns black and, in white lettering, asks: "Love? Forget love. It's time to get tough!"
Trump's video -- his latest play in an escalating feud with Bush -- awakens memories of the 1988 "Willie Horton" ad, one of the most notorious political attacks in recent decades. The ad was used to devastating effect to undermine then-Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis on criminal justice issues.
Bush's campaign responded by once again raising doubts about whether Trump is a genuine Republican.
"While Donald Trump was still supporting liberal, soft-on-crime politicians, Jeb Bush accumulated an eight-year record of cracking down on violent criminals as governor of Florida," said his spokeswoman, Kristy Campbell. "Mr. Trump's immigration plan is not conservative, would violate the Constitution and cost hundreds of billions of dollars, which he will likely attempt to pay for through massive tax hikes."
Bush and his aides have questioned the cost and practicality of Trump's plans to erect a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and to deport the tens of millions of undocumented immigrants currently living in the country.
Campbell also said that Trump's Instagram video takes Bush's full comments out of context. The full Bush quote, as provided by the campaign:
"There are means by which we can control our border better than we have. And there should be penalties for breaking the law. But the way I look at this -- and I'm going to say this, and it'll be on tape and so be it. The way I look at this is someone who comes to our country because they couldn't come legally, they come to our country because their families -- the dad who loved their children -- was worried that their children didn't have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the
law, but it's not a felony. It's an act of love. It's an act of commitment to your family. I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime that there should be a price paid, but it shouldn't rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families."
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Philip Rucker is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post, where he has reported since 2005.
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