AP Pulls Story Egregiously Misquoting Rand Paul on Immigration Reform
If you recently read anything about Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) calling for the rounding of Mexicans, you read an egregiously misreported story by the AP, which has pulled it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., saying he sees some in the his party favoring a 2016 presidential candidate with an immigration policy that would "round up people … and send them back to Mexico." That quote was in the transcript of "Fox News Sunday" that was distributed after Paul's interview on the show. A subsequent Associated Press review of an audio recording of the show determined that the transcript had dropped the word "don't" from that quote, and Paul actually said, "They don't want somebody who wants to round people up, put them in camps and send them back to Mexico."
Related: If you want to back a politician who is very much in favor of rounding up illegals and deporting them, you should back Barack Obama, who has set records for deporting immigrants and harassing the workplaces that employ them. Read more here.
Here's the Fox News transcript (also corrected; emphasis added) in which Paul makes his general statement of a 2016 presidential platform, which looks pretty damn good from a libertarian point of view:
I think the country really is ready for the narrative coming, libertarian Republican narrative, also because we have been losing as a national party. We are doing fine in congressional seats but we're becoming less and less of a national party because we don't win on the West Coast, we don't win in New England. We really struggle around the Great Lakes.
I think people want a party that's a little bit less aggressive on foreign policy, still believes in a strong national defense but less aggressive. They want—the young people want politicians who don't want them in jail for 20 years for a nonviolent drug position charge. So, they want a little bit different phase. I think people want a little different phase on immigration frankly. They don't want someone somebody who wants to round people up, put in camps and send them back to Mexico.
Paul is, of course, strong on core economic issues and government spending as well. The platform he outlines above is indeed the coming narrative of both parties, as they chase after independent voters who have consistently said that government is doing too much:
It may come as news to folks at Reason, but Matt Welch and I wrote a book about much of this. Go here to buy the paperback edition of The Declaration of Independents (available as an e-book), featuring a new (circa July 2012) introduction.