Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Rundown With José Díaz-Balart,” Democratic presidential candidate former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-MD) said Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is using the frustration and anger of the America public to “speak in such hate-filled language” about all Mexican American immigrants just like “charlatans and unscrupulous so-called leaders” have done in the past.
O’Malley said, “My sense is the right now as a country, we’re going through a fragile and volatile time. The good news is our nation is creating jobs every month now for 65 months in a row. The bad news is 70% of us are earning the same or less than we were 12 years ago. What does that have to do with today’s political climate? It means when people like Donald Trump speak in such hate-filled language about other human beings, scapegoat other human beings as he has done with all Mexican American immigrants, it gives license to people who are very concerned and very worried and very apprehensive about their own future and their children’s future. And all of us in the public arena of this presidential campaign need to push back against Donald Trump and this sort of language. It’s not funny. It’s not entertaining, and it is unbecoming of the United States of America and the office of the president.”
He continued, “We’ve seen other examples of this in history when people feel like their economic opportunities are declining. When people feel like they’re not going to be able to give their children a better future, it becomes a very volatile political climate within which charlatans and unscrupulous so-called leaders can scapegoat other people and say that the reason you’re not doing better is because people not like us, people like them, the others. And we’ve seen this before. and now we’re seeing it right now in our own country. Look, if Donald Trump is such a big, tough guy, why is it that he takes — why is it that he takes on minimum wage workers? Why is it that he prevents minimum wage workers from even having labor unions. Why does he say such denigrating things about new American immigrants and about women? I don’t find anything tough about Donald Trump at all. In fact, my parents taught us this is not strength. This is weakness when you attack and you scapegoat other people and talk less of other human beings, as he has done in such hate-filled ways.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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