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Tapper, Reston Fact-Check Hillary's 'Overplay' on GOP Immigration Views

July 7, 2015

CNN's The Lead host Jake Tapper called out Hillary Clinton Tuesday for her overreach on accusing the Republican Party of not accepting and potentially hating immigrants.

Clinton lumped the entire GOP field seeking the nomination for president in with Donald Trump in a CNN interview Tuesday with Brianna Keilar. She said the candidates ranged on a "spectrum of hostility all the way to begrudging acceptance."

"To point out the obvious, Jeb Bush is married to a Mexican immigrant. I doubt he would describe his relationship with his wife as hostility to grudging acceptance," Tapper said.

Bush has been a vocal supporter for comprehensive immigration reform and is considered a leading conservative mind on the issue. He has regularly attacked President Obama for failing to offer a plan of his own to address the immigration crisis, especially when the president enjoyed majorities in both houses of Congress his first two years in office.

"It’s possible that this play she's making for Latino voters can work, absolutely," Tapper said. "But she could certainly overplay her hand, I think."

CNN reporter Maeve Reston warned Clinton to check her facts before painting Republicans with the same brush as Trump.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) is an advocate for a pathway to citizenship, something Clinton claimed no Republican was.

Similar to Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), Gov. Scott Walker (R., Wis.), Gov. John Kasich (R., Ohio), George Pataki, and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry have all advocated for some sort of immigration reform.

All of these candidates condemned Trump’s ugly remarks about Mexican illegal immigrants, which Clinton failed to recognize in her comments to CNN.