Eva Longoria, actress turned Democratic activist, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to promote the 2014 ALMA Awards airing on the “Lean Forward” network and used her Thursday appearance to push for amnesty.
During her friendly Thursday morning interview with co-host Mika Brzezinski, Longoria proclaimed that regarding immigration reform “everybody is on board. There is bipartisan efforts and then to see it fall apart was just so disappointing for many reasons.”
The liberal actress began her amnesty push by lamenting how Congress had failed to pass her version of “immigration reform” and that Democrats need to turn out to vote in 2014:
There is so much gridlock. And that's disappointing, but I always tell people when I’m going across the country politics is not a spectator sport. So you cannot have the ball and play unless you are voting. And so I think that in 2012 we had a historic turnout for the Latino community, but now in the midterms, that kind of falls off. I mean, obviously across the board and generally it falls off, but I’ve said time and time again you can't elect the President of the United States and then fail to show up to elect the people he has to work with.
The segment continued with Brzezinski complaining about the supposed inaction in Congress that prevented amnesty from becoming law:
You spoke at the 2012 DNC convention, there’s been a lot of ugliness in Washington and a lot not getting done in Washington. Is there any best case scenario given the realities of Washington in terms of immigration reform that you could see happening?
The liberal amnesty strategy session concluded with Longoria making one last pitch for congressional action:
There is bipartisan efforts and then to see it fall apart was just so disappointing for many reasons. Not only the economic imperative that it’s going to have on our country if we don’t fix this but for me the moral imperative of what's happening with these people especially when you look at the amount of children and the crisis we just had. So I think the only way that I would have hope is if we have a good turnout in 2014.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
October 9, 2014
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: How is it exactly that they don't feel connected to the process or what is maybe the flip side to the question, what's the opportunity that politicians are missing?
EVA LONGORIA: That's a great question because both things actually are very important. Apathy and the future turnout of Hispanic voters. And so sometimes when you look at a Congress like we have right now, people get disillusioned with the process. And that's where this thought comes in of my vote doesn't really count. Look, I didn't make a difference. Things are still not happening. There is so much gridlock.
And that's disappointing, but I always tell people when I’m going across the country politics is not a spectator sport. So you cannot have the ball and play unless you are voting. And so I think that in 2012 we had a historic turnout for the Latino community, but now in the midterms, that kind of falls off. I mean, obviously across the board and generally it falls off, but I’ve said time and time again you can't elect the President of the United States and then fail to show up to elect the people he has to work with.
BRZEZINSKI: You spoke at the 2012 DNC convention, there’s been a lot of ugliness in Washington and a lot not getting done in Washington. Is there any best case scenario given the realities of Washington in terms of immigration reform that you could see happening?
LONGORIA: Yes. You know, there was so much momentum coming out of 2012. And I thought, when people asked me, will immigration reform get done? I said absolutely. Everybody is on board. There is bipartisan efforts and then to see it fall apart was just so disappointing for many reasons. Not only the economic imperative that it’s going to have on our country if we don’t fix this but for me the moral imperative of what's happening with these people especially when you look at the amount of children and the crisis we just had. So I think the only way that I would have hope is if we have a good turnout in 2014.
BRZEZINSKI: And more leaders stepping up perhaps from the Latino community. Eva Longoria thank you so much.
LONGORIA: Thank you.
