A Cuban-American journalist running for Congress claims former President Barack Obama and House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi were “traitors” to Latinos for dragging their feet on immigration reform when Democrats had control of the White House.
Maria Elvira Salazar, who’s gunning for a seat in Florida’s 27th Congressional District, made the biting remarks during an appearance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” where she cited an interview Obama gave to Spanish language network Univison in 2008 promising to pass an immigration reform bill his first year in office.
At the time, Democrats had large majorities in both the House and the Senate.
” … I cannot guarantee that it is going to be in the first 100 days,” Obama told Univison’s Jorge Ramos at the time. “But what I can guarantee is that we will have in the first year an immigration bill that I strongly support and that I’m promoting. And I want to move that forward as quickly as possible.”
Salazar criticized Obama for breaking his “promise” and accused Democrats like Pelosi of “playing political football” with immigrant Latino voters.
“Right there, the Democrats and Nanci Pelosi had the wonderful and magnificent opportunity to stop this immigration reform problem that we have,” the TV journalist said after chiding Obama for instead focusing on other issues like ObamaCare. “And in reality what the Democrats gave us were crumbs called the DACA executive order.”
“That’s why President Obama and Nancy Pelosi are traitors to Hispanics,” she added.
In another attack on Democrats, Salazar mentioned that it was ex-President Bill Clinton who signed the Illegal Immigration Reform Law in 1996, providing the legal framework for President Donald Trump to separate migrant children from their families at the U.S-Mexico border.
The journalist argued against Latinos supporting Democrats, saying Hispanics in the U.S. share values that are more in line with Republicanism and laissez-faire government.
Watch more in the video below.
