Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump argued that Hillary Clinton was “weak” on immigration and driven by polls while criticizing Jeb Bush for his comments that some illegal immigrants come as an “act of love” on Thursday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.
Trump began by denying reports that he had been told to tone down the rhetoric by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus saying that Priebus called to congratulate him and that no one called his campaign for confirmation.”
After re-iterating his criticism of the US’ policy towards Mexico and China and arguing the US needs a better negotiator as president, he said the US needs to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, and argued for strengthening the US military. He further blasted the job the US does taking care of veterans.
Trump then turned to the economy, where he expressed doubt that the unemployment was actually 5% and said that he had previously claimed it was around 20%.
The discussion then turned to illegal immigration and Trump’s comments on Mexican immigrants. He was asked, “If you had a do-over, would you have said there are a lot of good people that come here because they want hope and opportunity because we’re a great country, but with them come — in other words, would you reverse it?” He stated, “Sean, what I said was when Mexico — I’m talking about the country of Mexico, they are sending us their criminals. We’re not talking about the good, the good people com, and they’re great people, they’re better than good people. I love the Mexican people. They have tremendous spirit, they have tremendous vibrance and life. I love them. I have so many friends. I respect the country of Mexico. The problem is, the country of Mexico, the leadership is much smarter than our leadership. They are killing us in terms of jobs and economic development, and they’re killing us at the border. When I say that Mexico is — I’m talking about the country of Mexico, the government of Mexico. They’re sending us criminals. In other words, instead of putting them in their jails, they’re sending them to us. They’re sending us drug dealers, and people that have lots of other problems, and they’re sending them over because they say, ‘Why should we do this? Why should we take care of the prisoners? We’ll send them over.’ And that’s what I meant. When people figure it out, everybody says, ‘Oh.’ That’s — and it’s so obvious. I mean, can it be any more obvious?” Although, he did concede he could have made it clearer he was referring to Mexico’s government during his announcement.
He continued, “So, what do we do? We take them, and we put them prisons, and we sometimes have to put them in hospitals. And we take care of them. And one other thing, the man that killed that magnificently beautiful and wonderful young woman in San Francisco, was pushed out of Mexico five times, five times. He should have been in a jail in Mexico. And what we do is we have our prisons loaded up, and it’s ridiculous.”
Later, he argued, “I watch Hillary Clinton. She would be so weak on immigration. I watch Jeb Bush. He’s a joke on immigration. He said they come, it’s an act of love. … This has nothing to do with love. This is serious stuff. You have some very serious situations coming over here. And they’re being pushed by –. They are taking, people that should be in Mexican prisons, Mexican jails and they’re pushing them over to United States. And these are dangerous people, and you saw that in San Francisco, and you saw that with a great father who has this wonderful son who’s going to be a college football player, tremendous potential, a wonderful kid. And he was shot by one of these people walking down a street with his father. And, I mean, this was one of the sad stories. There’s so many. There’s hundreds of these stories. And people don’t want to talk about it.”
He then, after seeing a montage of Clinton’s differing positions on sanctuary cities, argued, “what happened is, they have pollsters, she has pollsters working for that say ‘You have to do this in order to beat Bernie Sanders.’ Who would have thought this was going to happen with Bernie Sanders, you looked at him — you say ‘How does this guy end up like he’s ending up?’ And frankly, we have — they absolutely, they took polls, and for some reason, with a certain group of the population, they want to do this, and they believe in the sanctuaries, and it’s incredible that somebody can think that way. And it’s so bad for our society. And all you have to do is look at San Francisco, and look at that beautiful young woman who was killed in her father’s arms. And you say if they didn’t have this, it wouldn’t happen. And beyond that, Sean, he should have never been in the country anyway. Mexico, in my opinion, the government of Mexico forced him out because they don’t want to take care of him for 50 years in a jail.”
Trump concluded, “We’re allowing it because we have stupid leaders, we have a stupid group of people at the top, and they allow things like this to happen. That girl should be alive. The young man, the man’s son should be alive right now. Shouldn’t be you know where. It’s so sad what’s happening to our country.”
He was also asked about whether he would support the Republican nominee if he wasn’t the party’s pick, Trump said he would have to see who wins the nomination.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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