Ted Cruz hit back at Marco Rubio on Friday, saying that he "laughed out loud" at Rubio's comment that Cruz's position on immigration was not "dramatically different" from his own.
“Yesterday, Marco had a fairly remarkable comment in that he suggested that my record was exactly like his on immigration and I have to admit, I laughed out loud at that," Cruz told radio host Mike Gallagher.
Rubio had said that Cruz was a "supporter of legalizing people that are in this country illegally," citing amendments Cruz introduced to a 2013 immigration bill he (Rubio) championed, one of which would have increased a cap on H1B visas for high-skilled workers.
On Friday, Cruz went on to compare Rubio's comment to Obama suggesting that he and Cruz had the same stance on Obamacare or the Iranian Ayatollah saying that he and Cruz had the same position on the recent pact between Iran and the United States.
"Marco’s a friend, and, uh, but that statement was truly stunning," Cruz said of his rival for the GOP presidential nomination. "That’s like Obama saying my position is the same as his on Obamacare. That’s like the Ayatollah Khamenei saying my position is the same as his on the Iranian nuclear deal. It is laughingly, blazingly, on its face false.”
Cruz also addressed his stance on H1B visas, telling Gallagher he thought that the program had been abused to bring in "relatively low-skilled IT workers, sometimes with a bachelor's degree, sometimes from a diploma mill." He argued that those workers replaced American workers.
“That is utterly unacceptable, it is wrong, it is an abuse of the program, it is a manifestation of frankly the lawlessness of the Obama administration," Cruz argued. He said that he would not allow such abuse if he were elected president.
