Trump denies Zuckerberg criticism

Donald Trump denied being critical of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over his support for increasing visas for high-skilled workers in a series of contentious exchanges at Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate.

“I am all in favor of keeping these talented people here so they can go to work in Silicon Valley, so I am not at all critical of him,” the business mogul said when moderators said he had criticized Zuckerberg.

{mosads}The head of the social media giant is supportive of issuing more H-1B visas to foreign workers hired by U.S. tech companies. Tech firms have frequently lamented how difficult it is to keep U.S.-educated workers stateside because of the paucity of available visas.

Trump also flatly denied calling Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), another 2016 candidate who supports the visa program, “Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator.”

“I never said that,” Trump told moderator Becky Quick. “I never said that.”

He continued to deny making the jab, and Quick apologized.

He quickly drew attention online, however, for the fact that the immigration plan posted on his website does in fact make that claim.

“Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities,” it reads.

Rubio, for his part, defended the program while calling for more scrutiny on the companies receiving the visas.

“I believe that if there are abuses those companies should be permanently barred from ever using the program again and we should put strict standards in place to ensure that they’re not being abused,” he said.