ASPEN, Colo.—GOP presidential candidate John McCain poked fun at his faltering campaign on Wednesday, but on a more serious note disclosed that he has received death threats for his stand on illegal immigration.
During a speech before The Aspen Institute, a public policy forum, McCain said he has no intention of changing his position on illegal immigrants, even though it has hurt him in the polls and angered anti-immigration groups.
“I have never seen an issue that has inflamed the passions of the American people the way the issue of immigration reform has, ever, including Iraq. I have never heard such rhetoric. We have never received death threats before like I received. It is unbelievable how this has inflamed the passions of the American people,” McCain told a mostly packed tent.
McCain said he believes the nation needs comprehensive reform and said he won’t back down on a temporary worker program for the 12 million illegal immigrants now in the United States. In an interview after the meeting, he refused to elaborate on the death threats, saying he couldn’t talk about it.
McCain acknowledged the issue has cost him votes, along with his support for the war in Iraq, but he refused to back down.
“We’ve taken some setbacks and I know one of the questions is going to be on the issue of immigration reform. That has probably caused great difficulties, but look, I’ve got to do what I know is right for this country. These issues I have to take head-on,” he said.
McCain drew laughs when he poked self-deprecating fun at his faltering poll numbers after he finished 10th in the Iowa straw polls.
McCain noted that a number of candidates from Arizona have run for president and not won, including Barry Goldwater and Morris Udall.
“Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don’t tell their children that some day they can grow up to be president of the United States,” he said.
McCain said when he lost to President Bush in the 2000 primary, “I slept like a baby … sleep two hours, wake up and cry, sleep two hours and wake up and cry.”
He said in 1999, he had an approval rating of three percent in a poll with a five percentage point margin of error, which meant he started the race at minus two percent.
McCain said every campaign has problems and had to fire staff members like he did and he took responsibility for not keeping track of the spending, forcing him to cut back on his campaign.
McCain said the United States is making progress in Iraq, and he recommended the United States take a hard like against Iran. He said the United States needs an alternative to the United Nations, where Iran’s supporters have blocked sanctions, and should set up another coalition with democratic nations.
He also criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and said Putin should be barred from the next meeting of the G-8, the coalition of western leaders who meet to discuss world issues. He said Putin wants to reunite the former Soviet Union and he has surrounded himself with former members of the Soviet spy agency, the KGB, to crack down on opponents. He said the G-8 was founded on fundamental economic and democratic principles and Russia no longer meets the qualifications for the G-8.
“We have to make it clear to Putin that this kind of behavior makes him, in many ways, a pariah. The next year when they’re meeting, stay home, Vlad,” McCain said.
