Rudy on the Radio: 'Fence'
by Ryan Sager
Wed, 15 Aug 2007 at 10:04 AM
updated Wed, 15 Aug 2007 at 10:06 AM
Click here to listen to Rudy Giuliani's new Iowa radio ad: "Fence."
And here's the script:
Voice Over: "Here's Rudy Giuliani"
Mayor Giuliani: "It frustrates me that if someone comes here illegally, in addition to everything else that's involved in that, if they commit a crime, we don't throw them out of the country. As the mayor of New York I wanted to see if I could get the Immigration Service to help me. Let's see if you could get rid of the drug dealers who are coming out of jail. It makes no sense – after they have been in jail for selling drugs in the United States – we now have to keep them in the United States. They couldn't do it because they had other people lined up to throw out. They had like a professor who over-stayed his visa. I had a drug dealer who had maybe killed people. A person who comes here illegally and commits a crime should be thrown out of the country. People that come in illegally we gotta stop. You stop illegal immigration by building a fence, a physical fence and then a technological fence. You then hire enough Border Patrol so they can respond in a timely way. And then, if anybody becomes a citizen, we should make certain that they can read English, write English and speak English, because this is an English speaking country."
Voice Over: "Paid for by Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee Incorporated. Visit joinrudy2008.com."
Mayor Giuliani: "I'm Rudy Giuliani and I approve this message."
As mentioned yesterday, this is part of a concerted move by Mr. Giuliani to get in line with the GOP base. He focuses, as you can see from the script, on deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. This certainly plays into the current conservative media narrative that illegal immigrants are on a crime spree in our country — such as in Newark, where three kids were just killed by an illegal immigrant from Peru (he was also out on bail for a number of other crimes, including child rape, which seems the more salient fact to me than his immigration status).
But while prioritizing the deportation of violent criminals is the kind of thing no one can be against, he also supports the much more controversial border wall (suddenly it's a fence in this commercial?). As I said yesterday, I think supporting the border fence is cynical — and probably a hollow promise — but it is the move most likely to help him with the Republican base.
We'll see if it starts moving his numbers in Iowa. I suspect it will.
Related Topics: GOP Primary
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