[Updated below] The Republican National Committee, as part of its summer meeting, held an event in Boston yesterday to highlight the party’s “Rising Stars,” with a clear emphasis on diversity. The party’s base may be older, male, and overwhelmingly white, but when the RNC wanted to feature future stars, they picked four people — including two women, a Latina state lawmaker, and an African-American state lawmaker.
But perhaps the more interesting aspect of this story was a quote, not from one of the “Rising Stars,” but from the head of the RNC itself. Brett LoGiurato reported:
In condemning Rep. Steve King’s incendiary comments on immigration, RNC chairman Reince Priebus swept in his party’s presidential nominee, saying that talk of “self-deportation” was “horrific” and even “racist.” […]
“Using the word ‘self-deportation’ — it’s a horrific comment to make,” Priebus said, in a forceful rebuke. “I don’t think it has anything to do with our party. When someone makes those comments, obviously, it’s racist.”
Is that so.
It’s certainly welcome news that the chair of the RNC considers “self-deportation” horrific and racist, but it also comes as quite a surprise. As recently as a year ago, Priebus helped oversee the completion of his party’s national platform, and guess what it said on immigration? “Republican delegates hammered out an immigration plank calling for tough border enforcement and opposing ‘any forms of amnesty’ for illegal immigrants, instead endorsing ‘humane procedures to encourage illegal aliens to return home voluntarily,’ a policy of self-deportation.”









