While the Republican
National Committee is reported to be running an anti-Trump war room amid fears
the presidential candidate will “kill
the Republican Party,” a
prominent Senate conservative says Donald Trump’s immigration platform is
exactly what the GOP needs to win the White House, no matter who wins the
nomination.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., contends opposition
to so-called free-trade deals and unrestricted immigration is how the
Republican Party will gain the trust of the working Americans it needs to win
elections.
“Most people go to work
every day. They want to be sure that the candidate they vote for cares about
them,” Sessions said in an interview on Michael
Hart’s radio show on WYDE in Birmingham,
Alabama. “I think the average working person is not happy with the Democratic
Party, President Obama or Hillary Clinton, and they’re willing to vote for a
good Republican if they have confidence in him.”
Sessions was referring to blue-collar voters who
have cast ballots for both parties and were key to GOP victories in the 1980s,
earning the nickname “Reagan Democrats.”
Sessions said opposition to free-trade deals and
unrestricted immigration “are the kind of positions that can bring in to the
candidate, particularly the Republican candidate, new voters.”
A number of pundits and other candidates seeking
the presidential nomination contend Trump’s stand on immigration will turn
Hispanic citizens against the Republican Party.
But Sessions disagrees,
and survey
research backs him up. "If
you ask the question, 'If a business has a hard time getting employees, should
they import labor from abroad or raise wages and improve working conditions?'
61 percent of Hispanics and 80-something percent of African Americans say you
should raise wages," Sessions said.
"This is a bipartisan, nonpartisan issue.
It goes to the future of America, the ability of people to make good wages, be
promoted and be able to get a job."
He said presidential candidate needs to say,
'We're listening to you, American people." They need to confess to voters,
he said, that free-trade deals "aren't working out as well as people have
said, and we're going to negotiate only agreements that help you and the
American people."
"And it's the same issue with regards to
immigration," Sessions said. "We need to say, 'We're hearing you
American people. We are reaching a record level of immigrants into America, a
million a year are coming lawfully plus the ones that come unlawfully, this is
damaging your jobs and your future prospects,'" the senator from Alabama
said.
Sessions worked on Trump's immigration plan,
which is based on putting American workers first. "Decades of disastrous
trade deals and immigration policies have destroyed our middle class," the
plan declares.
Sessions has been an
outspoken critic of unrestricted immigration, both legal and illegal. A study by his Subcommittee on Immigration and the
National Interest shows the government will admit more than 10 million legal
immigrants over the next decade, eclipsing the combined populations of Iowa,
New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Sessions took an early
and vocal stand
against granting President Obama Trade Promotion Authority that would expedite passage of the TransPacific
Partnership and other agreements.
Sessions warned the Pacific pact would create an
international governing authority similar to the European Union.
WND reported the TPP, like the EU, seeks the free
flow of people, goods and capital among its member countries.
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