A Republican group called the Ripon Society recently hosted an event with four prominent Republican congressman: Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake, Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg, North Dakota Rep. Rick Berg, and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller. Heller was appointed to his Senate seat last year, and the other three lawmakers on the panel hope to join him there in January.
The group put this video online of the discussion, which was largely unremarkable, except for what happens at the 18:00 minute mark.
See that? Someone noted to the four Republicans that President Obama would implement the goals of the DREAM Act and asked for their responses. Flake is handed the microphone, and then magically, we see him passing it along to Heller.
Indeed, the video shows Heller saying, “Yeah, it’s probably very similar in Nevada as it is in Arizona…. I agree with Jeff.” Except, we didn’t get to see or hear Jeff Flake’s answer, so we don’t know what Heller is agreeing with.
There appears to be, as Charles Mahtesian noted, “a selective edit that removes Flake’s remarks on the subject.” When Mahtesian asked the Ripon Society and the Flake campaign about the missing footage, neither wanted to talk about it. Making matters slightly worse, the original video was 1:15 longer than this edited version, but the original version isn’t available to the public. And why wouldn’t Flake or his allies want us to see his comments? Probably because he was a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, the DREAM Act, and a temporary-worker program, right up until he wanted to be a senator, at which point he pulled a Romney and rejected the proposals he supported. So, rather than let us hear Flake’s answer to a reasonable question, we get some clumsy, creative editing.
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