Jeb Bush backs Marco Rubio on immigration reform, says he 'cut and run' when it got unpopular

Bush and Rubio brawl — (Image credit: Jim Watson/Getty Images)

At Thursday's Republican debate, Fox News host Megyn Kelly showed several clips of Marco Rubio, before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, promising to oppose a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, calling that "amnesty." Then he co-sponsored a Senate bill that included a pathway to citizenship, so doesn't that make him untrustworthy on the issue? Kelly asked. Rubio said that nothing will happen on immigration until the U.S. borders are protected, and ISIS fighters won't be let in if he's president.

Immigration is seen to be Rubio's biggest weakness in the GOP primaries, but Kelly then asked Jeb Bush if Rubio's had flip-flopped on immigration, and Bush said yes, and that Rubio was right to support immigration reform. He did the right thing, Bush said, "and then he cut and run, because it wasn't popular." He pushed a book he had written on immigration reform, and Rubio pounced, saying "that is the book where you changed your position on immigration." Bush snuck in a retort, "so did you," then accused then-Sen. Barack Obama of sinking a 2007 immigration reform bill with a "poison pill." Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.