Speaking with to Robert Costa of the Washington Post, Donald Trump defends his racist statements made during his candidacy announcement saying it was “okay” for him to have described undocumented immigrants as “rapists.” When asked about the using a word like rapists to describe a population, Trump responded:
It is a very rough word. It’s okay to use.
Also, lots of cursing:
“Look at that guy, look at what he did, killing that beautiful girl. [Expletive] animal.”
Who the [expletive] are you?
If I didn’t make a fortune, who the [expletive] is going to buy “The Art of the Deal”?
Their lives are [expletive] over.
What the [expletive] else do you have? Are you finished yet?
After Donald Trump spoke in Vegas today, a man who said he’s from Mexico confronted him during his Q&A and said he’s “incredibly insulted” by what Trump has been saying about illegal immigrants and Mexico.
He told Trump he’s being unfair to paint all illegal immigrants with a broad brush, but Trump piped up, “Did the government of Mexico ask you to come up and say this?”
The man dismissed Trump’s comment and asked him if he would build walls around every U.S. state to keep out all the rapists and criminals who are already in the United States and cross state lines.
Trump continued to stand by everything he’s said thus far on the matter, and right before they moved on, the man shouted, “Did you read the Statue of Liberty?”
Reality
It was completely unfair of Trump to dismiss this voter’s concerns and turn around and ask if the Mexican government sent him. There’s a word for this that escapes me at the moment, but it isn’t a good word.
Years after President Obama produced his birth certificate, Donald Trump reiterated his belief that Obama was not born a natural citizen to CNN.
Do you know that Hillary Clinton was a birther? She wanted those records and fought like hell. People forgot. Did you know John McCain was a birther? Wanted those records? They couldn’t get the records. Hillary failed. John McCain failed. Trump was able to get (Obama)] to give something — I don’t know what the hell it was — but it doesn’t matter.
Donal Trump tweeted that Jeb Bush likes “Mexican illegals because of his wife.” The tweet has since been deleted.
Thankfully things are never deleted on the internet.
The tweet stayed up for 24 hours before Trump deleted it.
Later at the Republican CNN debate on 9/16/2015, Trump was asked to apologize for the comment, to which he responded:
“No. I said nothing wrong.”
Reality
There is a reason why Trump tried to delete this tweet, it’s racist and intolerant as hell.
During his campaign speech, Donald Trump characterized Mexican immigrants as potential criminals and rapists, which we explained how and why this is racist. So he is starting from a basis of racism for his premise.
Not content with insulting a female reporter’s intelligence and professionalism, Donald Trump apparently mocked a conservative critic for being paralyzed. Trump in an interview with NBC News was asked about columnist Charles Krauthammer, who is paralyzed from the waist down and has called Trump a “rodeo clown.” In response to criticism from Krauthammer and National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg, Trump said the following: “I went out, I made a fortune, a big fortune, a tremendous fortune… bigger than people even understand,” he said before discussing his plan to release financial statements. “Then I get called by a guy that can’t buy a pair of pants, I get called names?”
Donald J. Trump descended “Stair Force One” to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the President of the United States of America and his first overtly racist comment by implying that the country of Mexico is intentionally sending immigrants who are criminals and rapists.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Reality
Donald Trump described people from Mexico as having “lots of problems”, drug users, rapists, and criminals. By painting a large swath of people with a single brush as “dangerous” he is using baseless stereotyping in an attempt to prove that Hispanics are different in their social behavior.
You might try to make the case that immigrants are still committing crimes, even if they are at a lower rate of natural-born citizens, however that does not explain away the fact that Trump is singling out an individual ethnic group as the cause of the problems in America. That is why is statement is racist.
Immigrants generally have a stronger incentive than native-born Americans to stay out of legal trouble — especially undocumented immigrants, who risk deportation. And those who legally are in the United States (or are pursuing legal status) are required to pass a criminal background check.
“Immigrants in general — unauthorized immigrants in particular — are a self-selected group who generally come to the U.S. to work. And once they’re here, most of them want to keep their nose down and do their business, and they’re sensitive to the fact that they’re vulnerable,” said Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank.
And the data backs up this theory.
Crime Rates
FALSE – According to the Congressional Research Service, incarcerated non-citizens represented 7.2% of the total incarcerated population of 2.4 million, a proportion similar to the noncitizen proportion of the foreign-born population. If illegal immigrants were bringing high crime then their should be a larger number of incarcerated illegal immigrants compared to the national population.
Mexicans Are Rapists
FALSE – Of all of the convictions of illegal immigrants in 2013 (the majority of whom were from Mexico) only 1.6% was sex offenses. Immigration offenses account for the largest portion of federal convictions of immigrants, followed by drugs, then traffic violations.
Crime Category
2013
Immigration
31.3%
Dangerous Drugs
15.4%
Traffic Violations
15.0%
Assault
10.2%
Burglary
2.8%
Weapon Offenses
2.7%
Larceny
2.7%
Fraud
2.6%
Sexual Assault
1.6%
Forgery
1.5%
Other
14.2%
Compare the 1.6% number to the national average of 12.2% of convicted prisoners who committed sexual offenses. So an illegal immigrant is 7.5x less likely to commit a sexual offense.
Describing how he would negotiate with the CEO of an American car company that wanted to relocate to or build a manufacturing plant in Mexico, Trump had an imagined conversation during his June 16 announcement.
“I would call up the head of Ford, who I know,” Trump said, going on to say that he would say, “Congratulations. That’s the good news. Let me give you the bad news. Every car and every truck and every part manufactured in this plant that comes across the border, we’re going to charge you a 35-percent tax, and that tax is going to be paid simultaneously with the transaction, and that’s it.”
Reality
That would, as The Washington Post‘s initial fact check stated, seem to violate the North America Free Trade Agreement (a treaty that Trump has openly disdained). It also does not take into account the fact that only Congress could establish separate tax rates under the Constitution.
During his campaign announcement, Trump declared that the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners exchanged with the Taliban for Army Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl “are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us.”
“We get Bergdahl. We get a traitor. We get a no-good traitor, and they get the five people that they wanted for years, and those people are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us. That’s the negotiator we have,” Trump remarked.
Reality
In fact, U.S. officials had announced two weeks prior that Qatar, the country to which the Taliban leaders were sent, had agreed to maintain a year-long travel ban while officials in both countries continued to negotiate the details.
As far as the traitor remark, Bergdahl’s attorney warned Trump in August to cease spreading his “outrageous comments.” Bergdahl is accused of desertion, not of being a “traitor.”
Donald Trump retweeted the following tweet to all of his supporters, before deleting it shortly afterwords.
Donald Trump Tweeting Hillary Joke
Reality
As funny as this may be, locker room humor is not befitting of a candidate for the Republican nomination for the President of the United States of America.
Donal Trump questions Ted Cruz’s legitimacy for his candidacy for the Republican nomination in a phone call to Fox News.
“He was born in Canada. If you know and when we all studied our history lessons, you are supposed to be born in this country, so I just don’t know how the courts will rule on this.”
Reality
The Constitution says the candidate must be 35 years of age and a resident of the United States for 14 years. The third qualification: He or she must be a “natural born citizen.”
The Congressional Research Service, the agency tasked with providing authoritative research to all members of Congress, published a report after the 2008 election supporting the thinking that “natural born” citizenship means citizenship held “at birth.”
Ted Cruz is eligible to be President of the United States of America.
