Obama: Urges Americans to ‘Stand Up’ Against GOP’s Anti-Immigrant ‘Bigotry’

Thursday at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 38th Anniversary Awards Gala, President Barack Obama criticized Republicans and urged Americans to “stand up” against the “bigotry” in the form of “the anti-immigrant sentiment that has effected our politics.”

Obama said, ”Some of the very same Republican politicians who championed reform in the past, some of whom sponsored these efforts, suddenly they want nothing to do with it.”

He continued, “Leadership is not fanning the flames of intolerance and then acting all surprised when a fire breaks out. Saying clearly inflammatory things and then saying ‘well that’s not what I meant,’ until you do it again and again and again. So we have got to decide whether or not we as Americans are willing to stand up again this kind of bigotry … The anti-immigrant sentiment that has effected our politics is not new but it it wrong.”