Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., 75, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, for the first time since he suffered an eye injury and broken ribs on New Year’s Day, when a piece of exercise equipment he was using broke and sent him smashing into cabinets at his new home. Reid sais his re-election bid in 2016 is on track even though he’s been sidelined by an exercise accident. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Earlier in the week, President Trump kicked over the anthill by floating a trial balloon that he can eliminate birthright citizenship by Executive Order. What does that mean (I think we’re all assuming it applies only to illegal aliens) and what would it look like? We don’t know. A cynic might think that this was a vaporware launch designed to create a new feeding frenzy in the media and to put illegal immigration on the front burner for Tuesday’s election. One boon was that it revealed a large amount of legal talent with sure answers on a subject that is, at best, murky.

One of the funniest parts to come out of it was a trip through the archives and watching how people who had in the past supported an end to birthright citizenship suddenly support it because they found themselves on the same side at Trump. One of those was former Nevada Senator Harry Reid.

Back before Harry Reid had his face busted up by a “broken exercise band” (this what folks in Nevada call a 6’2″, 220-lb BDSM escort in ass-less chaps and a Greek fisherman’s cap–NTTAWWT) he was pretty vocal about the stupidity of conferring US citizenship on anyone who happened to be born here. This is from September 20, 1993.

This is the key part:

If making it easy to be an illegal alien isn’t enough, how about offering a reward to be an illegal immigrant. No sane country would do that, right? Guess again. If you break our laws by entering this country without permission and give birth to a child, we reward that child with U.S. citizenship and guarantee a full access to all public and social services this society provides — and that’s a lot of services.

Shortly after this, the favorite newsie of the NeverTrump right, Jake Tapper, was out running interference for Reid:

Reid issues statement following POTUS noting his past support for ending birthright citizenship: pic.twitter.com/FOujLneHak

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 31, 2018

You wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Reid is a lying sack of…well, whatever…or that Jake Tapper took a statement by a Democrat politician at face value if it could serve the purpose of stopping a harmful narrative.

(Let me ask again, why anyone who saw the CNN townhall Tapper hosted after the Parkland high school shooting thinks this guy is anything but a hyper-partisan with some social skills and good table manners?)

In fact, a year after his floor speech, Reid was still pushing for an end to birthright citizenship. This is from an LA Times op-ed by Reid headlined, Cut Legal Admissions by Two-Thirds : Immigration: A senator offers a ‘stabilization’ bill:

Our doors should remain open, but only wide enough to admit those to whom we can realistically offer opportunity and security. To leave the door unguarded is to create an environment in which no one can live securely and peacefully. And so I am sponsoring a bill in the Senate to reduce immigration-legal and illegal.

Most politicians agree that illegal immigration should end. My legislation would double border patrols and accelerate the deportation process for criminals and illegal entrants. But many lawmakers feel that lowering legal immigration is too dicey. This is a cop-out.

My legislation calls for a reduction of legal immigrants from the current level of about 1 million admissions a year to approximately 325,000. Even that more realistic level means 25,000 newcomers entering every month, looking for jobs, housing and education.

When I sat down with Rev. Jesse Jackson not long ago to discuss immigration, he advised me to look at the moral implications of what I proposed. I did, and found the moral imperative on Congress and the President to enact change, quickly. Americans have sat freely around a bountiful dinner table. Now, the table is becoming overcrowded. People are squeezing in and elbowing each other to get what they want. Unless changes are made, our dinner table eventually will collapse, and no one will have security and opportunity.

The bill he is flogging is the immigration restriction bill he was pimping in his floor speech…the one he claimed to have disavowed.

TITLE X–CITIZENSHIP

SEC. 1001. BASIS OF CITIZENSHIP CLARIFIED.

In the exercise of its powers under section 5 of the Fourteenth Article of Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Congress has determined and hereby declares that any person born after the date of enactment of this title to a mother who is neither a citizen of the United States nor admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident, and which person is a national or citizen of another country of which either of his or her natural parents is a national or citizen, or is entitled upon application to become a national or citizen of such country, shall be considered as born subject to the jurisdiction of that foreign country and not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States within the meaning of section 1 of such Article and shall therefore not be a citizen of the United States or of any State solely by reason of physical presence within the United States at the moment of birth.