(UPDATE, 2:05pm: Rep. McSally released a statement within the last hour: “I believe the legislation I have been working on since September of last year, the Securing America’s Future Act, took a stronger approach to addressing these problems, but I do not believe making the perfect the enemy of the good does anything to make our country safer either. However, like President Trump, I supported this bill because it represents a tangible solution for these important issues. I stand ready and look forward to continuing to work with the President to find a way to get the mission done.” Full news release.)
Four of Arizona's five Arizona Republicans in the U.S. House voted to kill today's immigration bill, hours after it received an endorsement from President Trump. The lone holdout was Rep. Martha McSally (R-CD2), who had been involved in pushing the more hard-line bill that was defeated last week.
Today's vote was 121-301, and all of the Democrats voted against the Republican compromise. 112 Republican members did not support it, either.
McSally has not made any public comments today about the bill. Earlier today, President Trump tweeted his endorsement, calling it "STRONG BUT FAIR". However, that nearly half of the GOP House Members could not go along with it may undercut the President's frequent argument that "open border" (and pro-crime) Democrats are responsible for the immigration stalemate.
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Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Thursday, June 7, 2018
LISTEN: New APS RoboCall - We're Still Hearing Media Reports Of Scary Circulators
Arizonans for Affordable Energy, a group bankrolled by APS to oppose the proposed Clean Energy initiative has begun a new round of robocalls "warning" people to beware the petition circulators.
Arizona's Politics received the call Thursday morning, and was able to record it.
Matthew Benson, the indefatigable spokesman for AAFE, told Arizona's Politics that asking for the reactions of people who received the call "fascinating....(Y)ou're fine w/ them using felons (in violation of state law) but have a real beef with us letting people know about it."
Here's the call:
Of course, both halves of that statement are incorrect assumptions
From the inevitable legal challenges to previous initiative petitions, we have learned that petition gathering firms screen the people they hire to circulate for criminal records. People who have not had their voting rights restored following a felony conviction are not hired because they are not eligible to vote or to circulate petitions. (They are not ineligible due to safety concerns or identity theft concerns.) We have also learned that a few people with felony convictions typically slip through the screening efforts due to incomplete databases and varying laws regarding restoration of rights .
But, pretending that AAFE is simply making the calls as an (Arizona) public service when the calls (and videos) are clearly trying to use over the top scare tactics is not typical.
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Arizona's Politics received the call Thursday morning, and was able to record it.
Matthew Benson, the indefatigable spokesman for AAFE, told Arizona's Politics that asking for the reactions of people who received the call "fascinating....(Y)ou're fine w/ them using felons (in violation of state law) but have a real beef with us letting people know about it."
Here's the call:
Of course, both halves of that statement are incorrect assumptions
From the inevitable legal challenges to previous initiative petitions, we have learned that petition gathering firms screen the people they hire to circulate for criminal records. People who have not had their voting rights restored following a felony conviction are not hired because they are not eligible to vote or to circulate petitions. (They are not ineligible due to safety concerns or identity theft concerns.) We have also learned that a few people with felony convictions typically slip through the screening efforts due to incomplete databases and varying laws regarding restoration of rights .
But, pretending that AAFE is simply making the calls as an (Arizona) public service when the calls (and videos) are clearly trying to use over the top scare tactics is not typical.
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
BREAKING (OR, IS THAT "FIXING"): Arizona's Politics RE-POSTS McSally's Missing DACA Video Plus Transcript
This afternoon, CNN broke the news that Arizona Rep. Martha McSally (R-CD2) has removed a year-old video in which she urges the White House to assure DACA recipients that they be "protected" until there is a legislative fix. The video was removed from her Congressional website (and from her official YouTube channel).
As a public service, Arizona's Politics is re-posting both the removed video and a transcript of McSally's comments - in which she also states that "uncertainty certainly brings fear to my constituents that are in this limbo."
CNN's KFile investigative unit published their article online*, explaining why it was the office of the Congresswoman-and-now-Senate-candidate who deleted the video. And, while the removal is certainly a newsworthy action - given McSally's drift to a hardline DACA position since Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced that he would not seek re-election - the continued presence of the video from other sources is also important to note.
McSally's comments came during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on President Trump's budget request for the Department of Homeland Security. McSally was questioning then-DHS Secretary (now Trump Chief of Staff) John Kelly.
The Committee still has the video from the hearing posted on its website. (Fortunately, there is no 2-minute gap.) The video below should start from the DACA discussion.
Here is the transcript (from Google, with light editing for clarity by Arizona's Politics) of their interaction about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals:
McSally is in a much-publicized three-way primary contest against immigration hardliners Joe Arpaio and Kelli Ward. (The current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination is Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.)
*CNN's headline indicates that McSally was "Praising DACA"; however, there are no real words of praise from either McSally or Kelly. Rather, she is acknowledging that the reality on the ground is that the DACA recipients came forward and gave the government lots of information.
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
As a public service, Arizona's Politics is re-posting both the removed video and a transcript of McSally's comments - in which she also states that "uncertainty certainly brings fear to my constituents that are in this limbo."
CNN's KFile investigative unit published their article online*, explaining why it was the office of the Congresswoman-and-now-Senate-candidate who deleted the video. And, while the removal is certainly a newsworthy action - given McSally's drift to a hardline DACA position since Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced that he would not seek re-election - the continued presence of the video from other sources is also important to note.
McSally's comments came during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on President Trump's budget request for the Department of Homeland Security. McSally was questioning then-DHS Secretary (now Trump Chief of Staff) John Kelly.
The Committee still has the video from the hearing posted on its website. (Fortunately, there is no 2-minute gap.) The video below should start from the DACA discussion.
Here is the transcript (from Google, with light editing for clarity by Arizona's Politics) of their interaction about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals:
McSALLY: Thank
you, and I want to
117:56
follow
up on the DACA issue. You know,
117:58
while
I don't agree with kind of how it
118:00
was
done from roles and responsibilities
118:03
of
the branches of government, the
118:04
reality
is that we're dealing
118:05
with
real people. These kids who were
118:07
brought
here into the country at no
118:09
fault
of their own as children as you
118:10
know.
In Arizona there's 57,000 of them,
118:13
and
because of the program they came
118:16
forward
to the government. They gave
118:18
their
personal information - where they
118:20
live,
they their biometric data, their
118:22
fingerprints.
They went through a
118:24
background
check, they've graduated from
118:25
high
school, they've served in the
118:26
military.
And I agree with you that we
118:30
need
to come up with a legislative
118:31
solution
here to address this issue and
118:33
I'd
urge our colleagues to do that. I
118:35
think
Carlos Curbelo’s bill is a good
118:37
place
to start and I really think we
118:39
need
to move that forward. But in the
118:40
Meantime,
uncertainty certainly brings
118:42
fear
to my constituents that are in this
118:45
limbo.
Can you assure my constituents who
118:49
are
in this place - until we solve this
118:51
legislatively
- that they are going to be
118:53
protected
and that they're not having to
118:56
worry
about it.
KELLY:
As I said many, many, many
119:00
times
on this topic we are not targeting
119:02
DACA
recipients. But that said and it's
119:08
I'm
not gonna let you off the hook you
119:09
got
to solve this problem. A different
119:11
man
in this job, a woman, might have a
119:14
different
view of it. I'm not going to
119:16
let
the Congress off the hook. You've got
119:17
to
solve it. A different person in this
119:19
job
might have a different view.
McSALLY:
And, and
119:22
I
agree with you again I want to urge
119:23
our
colleagues on both side of the aisle
119:24
to
deal with reality. Forget about
119:26
ideology
or how we got here, but now
119:29
we're
dealing with reality and we got to
119:30
solve
this problem based on what's
119:32
practical
and what's compassionate and
119:34
also
upholding the rule of law and in
119:36
the
precedent. So I appreciate that, thank you.
119:38
you mr. secretaryMcSally is in a much-publicized three-way primary contest against immigration hardliners Joe Arpaio and Kelli Ward. (The current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination is Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.)
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.