On Thursday's New Day on CNN, former Clinton administration official Ana Maria Salazar blasted Donald Trump's recent comments on illegal immigration, and predicted that it would lead to racist violence: "This is hate language. This will incite violence – not only against Mexican-Americans, Mexicans – but also against migrants." [video below]
Anchor Michaela Pereira introduced Salazar as a "Latin American political analyst and radio host and blogger," but failed to mentioned that she served as deputy assistant secretary of defense during former President Clinton's second term, and previously worked in Clinton's State Department. Pereira first asked her guest for her reaction to Trump's remarks. She replied with her "incite violence" claim:
MICHAELA PEREIRA: Ana Maria, I think many people are expecting to hear Donald Trump, sort of, clarify with more in-depth language – but essentially, he keeps doubling down. What's your reaction to all of this?
ANA MARIA SALAZAR, LATIN AMERICAN POLITICAL ANALYST: I'm – I'm outraged, Michaela. I keep on thinking if Donald Trump was talking about African-Americans, or if he were talking – if he were speaking about the Jewish community or the Italian-American community, there would have been a different reaction. I can't understand – how is it possible that a presidential candidate for the United – who wants to be President of the United States, can speak and use hate language, and continue to use it now on a daily basis as his platform – his political platform. And that is the problem – this is hate language. This will incite violence – not only against Mexican-Americans, Mexicans – but also against migrants.
And it is – I think it's great that you're starting to see more companies and more corporations distance themselves from Donald Trump, but it's not soon enough. He has hotels; he has golf courses. I think there should have been stronger language-
PEREIRA: What more do you want to see, Ana Maria?
SALAZAR: Well, let me just put it this way: why doesn't everybody boycott his hotels to start with? I mean, I want – I can't imagine him saying this – using the same language against any other ethnic group in the United States, and there wouldn't be an outrage or stronger statements coming from governors; from the white-
PEREIRA: There has been outrage here. I'm – I'm interested to – to get your take on why-
SALAZAR: Is there? Come on!
The CNN anchor spent the remainder of the segment on how the controversy over the businessman's comments might affect the Republican president race. Salazar targeted Jeb Bush in particular for not going after Trump:
PEREIRA: I'm interested to hear your take on why you think we haven't heard from anybody in the Republican Party, sort of, distancing themselves; or even, sort of, pushing back on what Donald Trump is saying. That's why I'm asking you: why do you think that hasn't happened?
SALAZAR: Who has – who has distanced themselves? For God's sake, the main contender – Jeb Bush – his wife is Mexican. She's a Mexican migrant. Jeff (sic) Bush's kids are Mexican. He's speaking about Jeb Bush – he's speaking about my family. And the only thing we hear is that we keep on focusing on this debate surrounding migrants; surrounding what should be the – you know, U.S. immigration issue; what should be the bilateral relationship with Mexico. This is hate language, and he keeps on speaking, and he keeps on getting – and he keeps on accusing Mexicans, Mexican-Americans of being rapists, and nobody's stopping him because he's a presidential candidate-
PEREIRA: So Ana Maria, what do you make – okay – so let's talk about the fact that – 2016 we're watching – we're 494 days away from the election. You're a political analyst, and commentator as well. We did the CNN/ORC poll, and it's interesting that the poll was done after these derogatory comments that he made – and look it – second place. So what do you make of that?
SALAZAR: Well, what do we make of it? That there is a segment within the U.S. society that supports that type of position against – not only migrants, but also Mexicans, Mexican-Americans. So that's why I think that's there is a point where the Republican Party has to make a decision – are we going to include, under our umbrella, people like Donald Trump, who speak and use this type of language as part of the Republican platform?
And I don't – you know, this is beyond if – whether he's going to win, or whether he's going to be the candidate or not. But throughout this whole process, you can't have someone like him going to every – all these interviews and speaking and saying the thing (sic) he's saying without any kind of consequences. I would have expected by now that there would be a call to boycott all of his hotels; all of his golf courses – major corporations saying, you know what, Donald? We're not going to take our conferences or events to your hotels-
PEREIRA: Well, Ana Maria, we certainly know that money talks, and we have already seen some of the groups cut ties with him – NBC Universal; Mexico pulling out of the Miss Universe pageant. We've seen Univision, and we expect that there's going to be other backlash, if you will.
Pereira ended the interview by praising her guest: "We really appreciate you bringing your passion to this conversation to us on our air here at CNN. Thanks so much for joining us. Ana Maria Salazar, we really enjoyed hearing from you today."
