Gutiérrez: Donald Trump ‘Little Devil,’ Pope Francis the ‘Antidote’

Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (R-IL) is trumpeting Pope Francis as the “anti-Trump” and his upcoming visit as an “antidote” to Trump’s “venom.”

Gutiérrez, a vocal Trump opponent and advocate for what he describes as “immigration reform,” painted the Republican presidential candidate as a “little devil” on the nation’s shoulder in contrast to the pontiff, who will assume the position of the “little angel” on the other shoulder when he visits the U.S. later this month.

“On one shoulder, we have a billionaire out there saying Mexicans are murderers…On the other shoulder is a man who is not afraid to touch the feet of the poor and recognizes their humanity even in their poverty,” Gutiérrez said.

Speaking on the House floor beside enlarged photos of Trump and Pope Francis Wednesday, Gutiérrez attacked Trump, the current GOP frontrunner, for his tough immigration talk and the Republican field for joining.

“And almost everyone else in his party is scrambling to catch up so they do not miss out on the wave of populist anger he is tapping and feeding with a mix of untruths, half-truths, and good old fashioned racism,” he said.

According to Gutiérrez, the Pope’s words will offer the U.S. a needed “counter-balance, a counter weight to what has become the ugliest, most xenophobic, most anti-immigration campaign in anyone’s memory.”

Gutiérrez has taken to the House floor several times since Trump announced his presidential run to attack the real estate mogul for his comments about immigration.

“Most of us came legally, sometimes waiting in lines that lasted years and some of us, when legality was not an option, and there was no line to stand in, came anyway because of work and freedom are so plentiful,” he said Wednesday.

When the Pope visits later this month, Gutiérrez urged people to listen to the Pope’s message and recall the nation’s past obstacles.

“For this Catholic American – for this man who has sometimes struggled with the Church and is not always welcomed because of my support for women’s health, a woman’s right to a legal abortion, LGBT rights – I am so looking forward to the Pope’s visit because I feel my nation needs him more than ever before,” Gutiérrez concluded.