Here are some notes that are too detailed or in the weeds for the main post.

Rubiobots sometimes try to say that when Cruz says Rubio would not eliminate “Obama’s illegal executive amnesty” on Day One, that it is a “lie” because Rubio has always said he would get rid of DAPA, just not (until he talked to Tapper) DACA on Day One.

But look. First, in the Tapper interview, Rubio doesn’t even make that argument — showing that Rubio knows damned well Cruz is referring to DACA when he makes the accusation. Second, both DAPA and DACA are “illegal executive amnesty” (to use Cruz’s words) — even in the opinion of Marco Rubio. In the Tapper interview, Rubio admits it. And Rubio has called DACA an “unconstitutional” policy before:

In New Hampshire, Rubio called the deferred action program, or “DACA,” an “unconstitutional policy.”

So: President Obama has a plan of illegal executive amnesty. It consists of DACA and DAPA, both. Both parts are indeed “illegal executive amnesty.” Rubio told Univision in Spanish he would not repeal part of that on Day One. So it is correct for Cruz to say Rubio has said in Spanish that he would not repeal Obama’s illegal amnesty on Day One. Because Rubio would repeal only part of it.

Also, it is interesting to note Rubio’s reasons for saying he would repeal DAPA. Because it’s illegal? Nope, that’s not what he says in Spanish. In an interview with Jorge Romos conducted in English, Rubio said this:

RAMOS: Would a President Rubio revoke deferred action, and the executive action by President Barack Obama that would benefit more than four million people — undocumented immigrants in this country?

RUBIO: Well, we have two executive actions. The first was DACA, which applies to young people that arrived in this country at a very young age before they were adults and I don’t think we can immediately revoke that. I think it will have to end at some point, and I hope it will end because of some reform to the immigration laws. It cannot be the permanent policy of the United States but I’m not calling for it to be revoked tomorrow or this week or right away.

There is a new executive action that applies to adults, to a broader population of people, and that, I believe, is a wrong approach. I would revoke it. Because it’s hurting our efforts to reform our immigration laws. It is adding credibility to the argument that we cannot do immigration reform because the federal government is not serious about reforming immigration laws and preventing a future immigration — illegal immigration crisis.

It’s interesting to note that he does not say he would revoke DAPA (the amnesty targeted to adults) because it is unconstitutional. He does not say that Obama exceeded his authority. He simply argues that it will impede legislative efforts to pass “immigration reform” — which in his mind clearly contemplates legalization and indeed citizenship for most illegal immigrants in this country. You can watch this for yourself in this video; the exchange quoted above happens at the beginning:

By the way, Rubio supporter AG Conservative has cited this as evidence of a “lie” by Cruz:

“Marco Rubio has gone on Univision and said in Spanish, ‘No, no, I wouldn’t rescind amnesty,” Cruz said later, presumably referring to an interview Rubio gave in Spanish – the translation of which conservatives have debated – during which he said he wouldn’t suddenly end the executive action delaying the deportation of young immigrants who were brought here illegally as children, but would work to replace it with a more permanent solution and felt the executive action should be ended.

It should be noted that this is a clipped quote, provided without video evidence, by NBC News — a partisan leftist organization that no sane conservative would trust to provide full context for any quote from a conservative. If video evidence were to emerge that shows Cruz making the claim that Rubio “wouldn’t rescind amnesty” without qualifying it with a phrase like “on day one” — and I am unaware of any such proof — then we could have a discussion about whether and to what extent Cruz’s statement was misleading, given that Rubio, in his Univision appearances, consistently contrasts DAPA, which he “would revoke,” with DACA, which he 1) would not revoke on Day One (although he has since flip-flopped on this); 2) hopes would only be revoked once a legislative amnesty passed; and 3) won’t commit to revoking without legislative amnesty, but merely says that it can’t be the policy forever. By the way, I italicize the word “would” for a reason in that quote. Listen to the video above of the English interview with Ramos to hear how he emphasizes the word “would” — seemingly implying that he would not repeal DACA. And as Ace says in his great post:

He also speaks of it ending in the third person — he won’t end it. It will just “end” itself, somehow.

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