CNN analyst Ana Navarro lashed out at former Republican Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado of California Monday night, claiming he was “okay with racism” after he defended former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on immigration.
Trump has made substantial gains with Hispanic voters heading into the November election due to issues like immigration and the economy. Navarro expressed incredulity at Trump’s support among Hispanics.
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“One of the things that I found really interesting about that poll also, was that the majority of Latinos think that when Donald Trump is making anti-immigrant remarks and when he’s making, you know, talking with racial slurs and the things he says that we all have heard him say, they think it doesn’t apply to them,” Navarro said after CNN host Anderson Cooper showed a New York Times/Siena College poll revealing that 37% of Hispanic voters backed Trump. “And I have a really hard time understanding that because I, you know, when the shooter showed up at the Walmart in El Paso and shot 22 people and then there were another 22 victims, he didn‘t stop to ask the people if they were legal or if they were undocumented, he just shot people because they look like Latinos and he went to El Paso because there was where Latinos went and he was hunting down Latinos inspired by anti-immigrant rhetoric.”
“And so to me it boggles the mind that somebody who looks like you, who looks like me, who sounds like you, who sounds like me, think that when he is making anti-immigrant racial offenses, it doesn’t apply,” Navarro lectured Maldonado after he mentioned Trump’s increased support among Hispanic voters.
Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck-and-neck in the 2024 presidential race with each receiving 48% support in an NBC News poll released Sunday, with the former president leading the sitting vice president on who was more trusted to handle immigration by a 56% to 31% margin.
“I think Anderson, when President Trump is talking, he’s talking about criminal folks that are being sent to our country… He’s not talking about Latinos that are coming here to work hard, there is a process to come here…” Maldonado responded.
“Do you think a racist is going to ask for your immigration papers?” Navarro interrupted, then repeating the question.
After further back and forth, Maldonado pointed out that he is on the “Trump 47” bus.
“That means you’re okay with racism,” Navarro claimed.
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