Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was badgered by guest host Jim Acosta about one man in the crowd at Trump’s Friday night rally in Alabama “shouting white power,” and whether or not Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship was “only about couples that are from Latin America,” and if “this rhetoric, this anti-immigration rhetoric is going to spiral out of control, and people are going to be hurt?”
Exchange as follows:
ACOSTA: I want to ask you about this, how Trump would execute this idea of birthright citizenship?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, first of all, thank you for having me on, and we have to look at how big this problem is, and if you look at the term anchor babies—of individuals coming here to have their children so their children can be U.S. citizens, there are 400,000 happening on a yearly basis, and that is the equivalent of Tulsa, OK, the 47th largest city in our country, and we have a huge problem with the illegal immigration, and the first thing that we have to do to build a wall to stop the people from coming into our country illegally. and the second thing is that we…
ACOSTA: First of all, let me jump in have to — there, and if somebody comes over from Great Britain, for example, and that have a baby in Manhattan, and are you saying that baby is also going to have its birthright citizenship taken away, and it is not mattering about what part of the world or only about couples that from Latin America?
LEWANDOWSKI: No, anywhere. and there was a story about women coming from China coming here to have their children here, and it is well documented that the DEA and the INS has followed women from China to come here to have their children to be a U.S. citizen. Look, we are the greatest country in the world, and everybody wants to come here, and be a citizen of the country. And there is a proper way to do that and you have to follow the rules. Many of the ancestors came here, and they came legally through Ellis island or other places, and had children here and became great members of the society, and coming here illegally is not an option any longer … excuse me, illegal immigration is coming through, and we will see the severity of the crimes that legal immigrants are committing. And catch and release is a disaster, and the sanctuary is needing to be defunded. We are seeing the families a that are first-class victims of these illegals and nobody wants to talk about it. And it is time to put our country first.
ACOSTA: I am sure that you heard that at the event in Alabama, a man in the crowd at one point shouting white power, and a situation in Boston that cropped up where two men beat up an immigrant and said that Trump was right. Are you concerned that this rhetoric, this anti-immigration rhetoric is going to spiral out of control, and people are going to be hurt?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well look, nobody is condoning violence, and Mr. Trump would not condone violence. I don’t know about the violence, but there were 30,000 people there in the stadium, and they were wanting to be proud to be an American again. We would never condone violence. If that is what happened in Boston, that is not acceptable in any nature. We should not be ashamed to be Americans and we should be proud of our heritage, and proud to be American.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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