This post has been updated. RNC chairman Reince Priebus offered a harsh denunciation of Mitt Romney’s immigration position on Tuesday. But contrary to a report from Business Insider, he did not label it “racist.” msnbc picked up the line from their coverage, but Business Insider has since corrected their piece and withdrawn the phrase.In the initial report, Business Insider quoted Priebus as saying:
“Using the word ‘self-deportation’ — it’s a horrific comment to make. I don’t think it has anything to do with our party. When someone makes those comments, obviously, it’s racist.“
The article has since added a correction. The new version:
“Using the word ‘self-deportation’ — it’s a horrific comment to make. I don’t think it has anything to do with our party. When a candidate makes those comments, obviously, it hurts us.”
As msnbc noted in its initial report on his comments, Priebus has been working hard to push the party to the center on immigration ever since President Obama dominated the Hispanic vote in November. That said, even without the “racist” line, his decision to single out Romney as “horrific” is still delicate territory.”Self deportation” was actually a pretty accurate description of Romney’s preferred policy as championed by Republican officials like Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Their position was that if you pass state and federal laws to make life difficult for undocumented immigrants, then hopefully they’ll leave.Here’s where Priebus really runs into trouble. If Romney’s position was “horrific” in 2012, so was practically the entire Republican Party. Romney’s position was such standard fare at the time that it made it into the RNC’s party platform—you know, the platform Priebus oversaw as chairman. That document not only included repeated denunciations of “amnesty” but also this nugget:









