O’Malley slams Clinton and Sanders for ‘poll-tested triangulation’ on immigration.WaPo
LAS VEGAS — Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley intensified his attacks against the two other Democratic presidential candidates here Sunday, accusing both opponents of having a cautious and outdated approach to immigration issues.
In an effort to gain traction against his better-funded and higher-polling rivals, O’Malley told a meeting of immigration activists in the early caucus state of Nevada that Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders each represent “the failed thinking of the past” and have governed with a strategy of “poll-tested triangulation.”
O’Malley singled out Clinton’s opposition to granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants in New York when she was a senator representing that state and running for president the first time.
“In 2007, when new American immigrants in New York had the opportunity for New York to do as Maryland had done and pass driver’s licenses for new American immigrants … Secretary Clinton had her campaign call up the then-governor of New York and begged him to pull the bill because it was getting in the way of her politics and her campaign,” O’Malley said.
Later, in a question-and-answer session, he again referred to Clinton’s 2007 driver's license position by calling out “the triangulation and cautious approach of Secretary Clinton.”
O’Malley’s comments came during an appearance at the Fair Immigration Reform Movement presidential candidates’ forum in Las Vegas. Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, is scheduled to appear at the forum on Monday. Clinton is not planning to attend.
O’Malley also attacked Sanders directly over immigration issues by highlighting one of the senator’s 2007 comments to Lou Dobbs, then a CNN anchor and now a Fox Business Network personality who is a lightning rod for many immigrants.
“When comprehensive immigration reform was up for a vote in the Congress, Senator Sanders went on Lou Dobbs’s show — are you familiar with Lou Dobbs? — and said that immigrants take our jobs and depress our wages,” O’Malley said. “Not only are those statements flat-out wrong, they actually harm the consensus.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/08/omalley-slams-clinton-and-sanders-for-poll-tested-triangulation-on-immigration/