Democratic former Gov. Phil Bredesen speaks at a summit on the opioid crisis put on by Healthy Tennessee, Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. Bredesen said Friday that his first action in the U.S. Senate would be to file or co-sponsor legislation to repeal a 2016 law criticized for weakening federal authority to curb opioid distribution. The announcement sought to put his opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, on the spot for supporting the law. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio charged Friday that former Gov. Phil Bredesen is “trying to pull a fast one” as the Tennessee Democrat and U.S. Senate candidate tells voters he’ll be a moderate voice if elected.
The Florida senator and 2016 presidential candidate made the comments while in Tennessee for a campaign event with Bredesen’s Republican rival, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn.
While never mentioning Bredesen by name, Rubio made it clear he was talking about him. Democratic candidates are “promising” voters “that they’re middle of the road, moderate, work with both sides. But then they never do,” Rubio said.
Calling it “a model that’s been tried in many parts of the country,” Rubio said “when they get to D.C. they vote 99.9 percent of the time with people that Tennessee would never vote for if they ran for office here.”
Republicans, Rubio said, have a “great candidate” in Blackburn while “you have someone on the other side who’s trying to pull a fast one on you. And you have real progress in this country despite all the rhetoric and the noise. That would all stop if too many of the wrong people get there like the individual running as a Democrat in this state.”
Bredesen spokeswoman Alyssa Hansen fired back in a statement, saying that “just like Governor Bredesen, Tennesseans are independent thinkers who can make up their own minds and don’t need to be told what to do by out-of-state politicians.”
Hansen added that Blackburn “should keep this in mind the next time she wants to bring one of her D.C friends to town.”
Blackburn and Bredesen are battling to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker of Chattanooga. With polling shows a statistical dead heat in Tennessee, which President Donald Trump won in 2016 by 26 points, the contest has generated increasing national attention as the GOP seeks to hold on to its razor-thin 51-49 Senate majority.
Rubio and Blackburn earlier particiated in a small roundtable in this affluent community south of Nashville with eight Hispanic business owners and heads of nonprofit groups. Some of them are openly backing Blackburn.
Blackburn said she has been meeting with them and discussing issues of importance to the community for years and one woman is on her Senate campaign.
Among the attendees was Tommy Vallejos, a Clarksville pastor and Republican nominee for a state House district seat.
Rubio carried Williamson County in Tennessee’s 2016 Republican presidential primary in an election largely dominated by Trump.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, recalled growing up in a south Florida Hispanic neighborhood.
“One of the things I’ve learned is how American Hispanics are and how much we have to contribute to this country,” he told the group. In recent decades, Rubio said, “faith, family and community” have been “degraded” in the U.S and must be re-built.
Judeo-Christian faith in the U.S., he added, has helped make America the most generous nation there is, he said, with groups building hospitals, universities, charities and ministries.
And, he added, “I know no community more deeply rooted in our faith than Hispanics across the country.”
One attendee, businessman Sam Sanchez, owner of the eight-restaurant Sam’s Sports Grill chain, described growing up in Houston in “a working-class family.” He said the economy is now booming and he has plans for more restaurants.
Rubio said “it’s amazing what people do with their money when they’re not paying it in taxes,” an allusion to a tax overhaul passed last year by the Republican-controlled Congress.
During the discussion, Charles Valdez, president of a telecommunications firm, told Rubio he has four adopted children. He wanted to know what can be done to help adopted children who, after graduating from local high schools, wind up having to pay out-of-state tuition at Tennessee public colleges and universities.
He said he personally knows of seven students adopted by Williamson County couples who are impacted.
“This is an issue that I think the Republican Party can get behind, because it’s something that is helping families.”
Replied Rubio: “There’s not a short answer to your question. It touches upon a broader thing.”
He said the U.S. accepts more immigrants than any other country and the system “needs to be modernized.”
“If you can dunk a basketball or throw a 98 miles-an-hour fastball, you will have no problem getting into the U.S. But if you are going to be a Ph.D that’s going to cure cancer, you may or may not get to come,” he said.
Rubio blamed the flood of illegal immigration from South America on people fleeing dictatorships or criminal gang violence. The solution is working on bettering conditions in countries such as Guatamala, he said, noting there are no such issues in nations like Argentina and Brazil.
Bredesen spokeswoman Hansen criticized Blackburn’s forum, charging that the congress member’s “jaw-dropping hypocrisy is on full display” on immigration issues. “In stump speeches and in Congress, she goes out of her way to hurt children, families and new arrivals.
Blackburn then “looks to those same voters for support in November without acknowledging who she really is,” Hansen said. “Hypocrisy is the only word for it, and voters – Democrats, Independents and Republicans – can see what she’s doing.”
Blackburn’s campaign did not immediately respond to a reporter’s request for comment.
Last year, Blackburn praised Trump for reversing predecessor Barack Obama’s Deferred Early Childhood Arrival (DACA) program, which allowed children and teens whose parents brought them illegally into the U.S. to qualify for administrative relief from deportation and become eligible for work permits.
“President Trump continues to prioritize our nation’s security and I applaud this latest decision to uphold the rule of law our country was founded upon. Unilateral executive actions, such as DACA, offer the false hope of amnesty that led to a surge of illegal immigration and stolen jobs from American citizens by giving illegal aliens work permits.”
Blackburn also noted in the statement that “I look forward to working with my colleagues in the coming months to fix our broken immigration system and establish laws that encourage immigrants and their families to come here legally.”
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.