Donald Trump’s affront to the Latino community reached new heights last week after Mexican-American journalist Jorge Ramos was forcibly removed from the presidential candidate’s Iowa press conference. But it wasn’t the first time Trump has offended Latinos.
His anti-Latino remarks have cost him several business partners since the launch of his campaign in June, including NBCUniversal, which aired Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice” and co-owns the Miss Universe Organization. Several prominent figures in the Latino community have also spoken out against Trump; actress America Ferrera and singer Ricky Martin published scathing op-eds condemning Trump’s actions and rallying Latinos to unite against him.
Even though only 18 percent of Hispanics take Trump seriously as a presidential candidate, the Republican has vowed that he “will win the Latino vote” if nominated.
If Trump wants to win the Latino vote, he might want to learn from past mistakes. Here are 9 of the most outrageous things the presidential candidate has said about Latinos.
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In Trump's speech when he announced his candidacy for president, he began by
comparing Mexican immigrants to "rapists" and then decided to broaden the scope of his insult to all Latinos.
Shortly after his initial "rapists" remark in his speech, the candidate expanded his comments beyond Mexico.
"It's coming from more than Mexico," he added. "It's coming from all over South and Latin America..."
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After his anti-Latino remarks, Donald Trump was asked to clarify his comments on CNN's "State of the Union". Instead, he decided to call Mexicans
"killers," as well.
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In an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, Trump
responded to his
previous claims that the Mexican government was purposefully sending undocumented criminals over the border.
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When
asked to provide evidence for his claim that Latino immigrants crossing the border were rapists on CNN's "The Situation Room," Trump told host Don Lemon he got his information from a Fusion article.
When Lemon corrected him -- explaining that article actually said 80 percent of women and girls from Central America are raped by
human smugglers, gang members other migrants or government authorities while immigrating to the U.S. -- Trump
shot back dismissing the victims and suggesting Latino immigrants were the ones raping the victims.
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Donald Trump
retweeted (and then deleted) a comment meant as a jab to fellow GOP candidate Jeb Bush. The tweet suggested that Bush would have more lenient views on immigration reform because of his Mexican-born wife, Columba.
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Trump retweeted another follower that said Jeb Bush was crazy and spoke "Mexican" -- which is not a language but a reference Bush's wife's roots.
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When award-winning Hispanic journalist Jorge Ramos
attempted to ask Trump questions about his immigration stance during a press conference in Iowa, the presidential candidate refused to respond because he said Ramos had spoken out of turn. As Ramos attempted to finish his question, security approached him and
physically removed him. Right before he was ejected from the conference, Trump told Ramos:
"Go back to Univision." On the way out a Trump supporter confronted the journalist, a U.S. citizen, and said: "You were very rude. It's not about you.
Get out of my country." Ramos was eventually allowed back into the press conference to ask his question.
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Trump first
tweeted statistics that
broke down New York City shooting suspects by race and ethnicity, citing Fox's Bill O'Reilly as a source.
Minutes later he tweeted again, correlating race and ethnicity with violent crime across the country. In response, media critic Eric Deggans
wrote in the Tampa Bay Times:
"There is no doubt that violent crime is a serious problem in communities of color. But connecting it to race in such a blunt and unfair fashion seems more about blaming certain kinds of people than solving the problem."