GOP gubernatorial hopeful blasted by critics for 'lying' on stage about illegal immigrant hires
Rick Jackson, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful in Georgia, is facing heat from critics calling him a "fraud" and claiming he lied during a debate earlier this week when the candidate...
By Fox News · Fox News
Rick Jackson, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful in Georgia, is facing heat from critics calling him a "fraud" and claiming he lied during a debate earlier this week when the candidate struggled to answer whether he has illegal aliens working for him. "I don't know," Jackson replied when his fellow Republican frontrunner in the race, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, asked him point-blank whether he has any illegal aliens working for him. Jackson explained he was not directly involved in the hiring process in question, but he also said on the debate stage that anyone making hires for him "obey[ed] the laws," including verifying employment eligibility using the appropriate federal "verification" measures despite saying the opposite during a sworn deposition. After his contradictory remarks on the debate stage Monday night, Jackson's critics leaped at the opportunity to call him out, pointing to his sworn remarks from a worker's compensation case, during which Jackson admitted that new hires were not vetted using mandatory federal I-9 forms meant to ensure employees are eligible to work. FLORIDA GOV DESANTIS TANGLES WITH REPORTER OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, TELLS HER 'YOU SEEM TO HAVE NO SYMPATHY' "Rick Jackson is lying to someone. Either he lied in his deposition under oath or he lied to Georgians on the debate stage," said political strategist Phil Vangelakos after the debate. "It's pretty clear that he knows he's employed illegal immigrants ." "Richie Rick Jackson is a fraud that will say what he needs to in order to win and is pretending to be a Trump Conservative , when in fact, he is a Bush moderate," said Georgia Tea Party activist Debbie Dooley, who is unrelated to the football coach turned Republican candidate for Georgia governor, Derek Dooley. "He campaigns against illegals, yet he hires them." The criticism against Jackson stems from a worker's compensation lawsuit Jackson found himself embroiled in, which included documents and records indicating he was paying at least…