--- title: McCain to GOP: If You Want to Beat Hillary, Pass Immigration Reform description: John McCain said Thursday that he believes Republicans can defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, but only if they pass immigration reform. canonical: https://time.com/3003338/hillary-clinton-mccain-immigration/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-18T01:36:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:25.593Z article:section: Politics og:title: McCain to GOP: If You Want to Beat Hillary, Pass Immigration Reform og:description: John McCain said Thursday that he believes Republicans can defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, but only if they pass immigration reform. og:url: https://time.com/3003338/hillary-clinton-mccain-immigration/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt629cdb36851f931d/69869c3fe53abac68f4d3a03/john-mccain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Senate Clears U.S. Debt-Limit Suspension For Obama's Signature og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: McCain to GOP: If You Want to Beat Hillary, Pass Immigration Reform twitter:description: John McCain said Thursday that he believes Republicans can defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, but only if they pass immigration reform. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt629cdb36851f931d/69869c3fe53abac68f4d3a03/john-mccain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # McCain to GOP: If You Want to Beat Hillary, Pass Immigration Reform > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=c72cedd6-a35b-4d9f-bac8-c5c3dc30082b&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Obama Fires Back Over Border Crisis [Watch (HLS stream): Obama Fires Back Over Border Crisis](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YVsH9Sf8.m3u8) (2:09)  _Published 2014-07-10. Obama is firing back after harsh criticism on immigration issues_ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 18, 2014 1:36 AM UTC  Senator John McCain speaks to the media after leaving the Senate floor in Washington on Feb. 12, 2014. Senator John McCain speaks to the media after leaving the Senate floor in Washington on Feb. 12, 2014. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 18, 2014 1:36 AM UTC Arizona Sen. John McCain said Thursday that he believes Republicans can defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, but only if they pass immigration reform. “She’s the odds-on favorite right now,” McCain said of Clinton at the “Politics on Tap” event hosted by CNN and National Journal. “But I think we have a long list of people who could defeat Hillary Clinton.” McCain suggested New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich by name as potential Clinton vanquishers. “We’ve got some very successful governors that have done very well in their states that I think once exposed to the American people could be very competitive.” McCain noted that Clinton’s poll numbers have dropped over the recent controversy over her wealth and her speaking fees, but said that could all be for naught if the Republican Party doesn’t enact immigration reform. “I expect it to be very competitive,” McCain said, “except if we don’t enact some kind of comprehensive immigration reform, I do not see a way for us to really win a general election.” Pressed on the lingering House Republican opposition to taking up immigration reform, McCain said he will continue to “hope and pray and work” to make them reconsider. Passing immigration reform was the sole policy recommendation of the 2013 Republican Party autopsy into its 2012 rout, but the House Republican conference has repeatedly blocked any action on the measure since the Senate passed a reform bill last year. “Hopefully my colleagues in the House will realize the same demographics that I am referring to and that they will at least in some way bring up immigration reform, whether it’s piecemeal, whether it’s one-at-a-time,” he said. “I think as the 2016 campaign gets closer that my colleagues will recognize … that we are marginalizing the Republican Party,” McCain added. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ]. Today, far from the border, in Denver, President Obama did address the immigration crisis in a slum on Republicans. [ INAUDIBLE ] Congress just said no to fixing our broken immigration system, [ NOISE ] in a way that strengthens our borders and our businesses. Despite that fact that everybody from law enforcement, to. Corporations to evangelicals. I, there, there's a coalition around immigration reform that's unprecedented. These guys still can't get their act together. [ MUSIC ]. The administration defends itself. The whole federal government is all over this situation. It is true they tried to get out ahead of the problem in May, mobilizing resources. But on Capitol Hill today, Republicans were furious as the President continues to not plan to see the border situation himself, the thousands of children in temporary shelters. The root cause is, literally is we have got to stop incentivizing. Parents and other immigrants coming into this nation. They're blaming Obama for not only failing to prevent this, based on sharply rising numbers of unaccompanied minors starting around 2012, and exploding this year. Gov. Perry down in Texas warned the White House about this specific issue. Two years ago, but they are also saying the President started granting some amnesty to kids brought here illegally years ago by their parents is a cause. It is a disaster that is the direct consequence of President Obama's lawlessness. The direct predictable, forseeable consequence. Of granting that amnesty as the number of children, unaccompanied children immediately began to skyrocket. The congressional anger out there includes wanting to see more border security. The same thing the White House blames them for holding up in not passing immigration reform. But even some Democrats now are balking. As showing President Obama the money he's asking for. What I'm going to be focused on is accountability, who's in charge, what the plan is, who's going to be held responsible, before we spend you know, $ 3. 7 billion. So we've got a lot more questions to be answered before I think we run too far ahead. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3003338/hillary-clinton-mccain-immigration/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3003338/hillary-clinton-mccain-immigration/"},"headline":"McCain to GOP: If You Want to Beat Hillary, Pass Immigration Reform","datePublished":"2014-07-18T01:36:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:25.593Z","description":"'We are marginalizing the Republican Party'","url":"https://time.com/3003338/hillary-clinton-mccain-immigration/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Immigration","John McCain"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt629cdb36851f931d/69869c3fe53abac68f4d3a03/john-mccain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt629cdb36851f931d/69869c3fe53abac68f4d3a03/john-mccain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Clears U.S. Debt-Limit Suspension For Obama's Signature","caption":"Senate Clears U.S. Debt-Limit Suspension For Obama's Signature","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3003338/hillary-clinton-mccain-immigration/","name":"McCain to GOP: If You Want to Beat Hillary, Pass Immigration Reform"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Obama Fires Back Over Border Crisis","description":"Obama is firing back after harsh criticism on immigration issues","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YVsH9Sf8/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-10T13:03:13.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YVsH9Sf8.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3003338/hillary-clinton-mccain-immigration/","duration":"PT2M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3003338/hillary-clinton-mccain-immigration/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```