A new ad against Republican frontrunner Donald Trump shows footage of him supporting citizenship for illegal immigrants, even after his presidential campaign launched last summer, and it charges that he and his building projects profited from illegal workers.
The ad is from Our Principles PAC, run by former Mitt Romney aide Katie Packer, the Wall Street Journal reports.
It points out Trump is skipping the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses, suggesting he can't "handle tough questions, like why he'd let millions of illegal immigrants stay in America and even supports a pathway to citizenship."
Trump is quoted as suggesting in 2012 that "you can't just throw everybody out," referring to illegal immigrants, and in late June of 2015, after he'd launched his campaign, he said there has to be a "path" to citizenship.
"Can conservatives trust Donald Trump?" the ad asks.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Mr. Trump has made staunch opposition to illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. In his mid-June announcement speech he referred to Mexicans as "rapists" and has since proposed deporting some 11 million undocumented people.
But the ad contains footage from a late June Chicago appearance in which Mr. Trump appears to favor allowing illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship.
"You have to give them a path and you have to make it possible for them to succeed," Mr. Trump says in the ad. "You have to do that."
The article reported Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.