Fox News contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy helped Laura Ingraham make ethnic attacks after presidential candidates Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Cory Booker spoke Spanish during their Democratic debate.
Ingraham couldn’t resist getting in her own digs before calling on Campos-Duffy to take her turn. Calling the first debate a “slow car crash,” Ingraham played clips of O’Rourke and Booker speaking Spanish, then snarked, “Magnifico” afterward.
“Does this – I can’t believe I’m saying this, "Hispandering" actually work for you?” Ingraham asked Campos-Duffy. It was a not-so-subtle nod for the Republican guest to go after Democrats.
Sure enough, Campos-Duffy took the cue and provided her “Hispanics-for-Republicans” brand of “analysis.” In this case, that meant swiping at Hispanic Democrats. First, Campos-Duffy complained that the Spanish of Julián Castro and Booker was not good – even though the clip was of O’Rourke and Booker. Ironically, also incorrectly pronounced O’Rourke’s first name as “Bay-toe.”
“Their accent sounded just like Caucasian boys in high school trying really hard to put on a Spanish accent,” Campos-Duffy sneered. Then, ostensibly having put forth her Hispanic bona fides, she took the digs at the Hispanics she had been clearly booked to take:
CAMPOS-DUFFY: The bottom line is this. English is - they missed the point because English is the language of opportunity in America. [Ingraham clapped her hands.] What Hispanics want is the American dream. They want financial independence and I believe that what Democrats want is for their minorities -- for minorities to be poor and dependent on them.
So if you really want to help Hispanics, encourage them to speak English ‘cause that's the way to achieve the American dream and really have success in this country.
Any host not interested in just attacking Democrats, and who didn’t harbor hostility to Hispanics, would have pressed Campos-Duffy on why she had just insinuated that Hispanics, reliable Democratic voters, are too stupid to vote Republican. Also, why she had assumed that speaking Spanish to Hispanics is the same as discouraging them from speaking English.
Instead, noted bigot Ingraham went on to gripe about how she “can’t stand” candidates speaking Spanish:
INGRAHAM: Rachel, on my radio show, we used to play people like President Bush and Michael Bloomberg trying to speak Spanish on Cinco de Mayo, like "Nosotro celebrando el Cinco de Mayo, yo quiero hablar contigo." I can't stand -- why just Spanish? Let's do Arabic, French. There are all sorts of German. I mean, all these other groups are being left out of the equation.
I mean, if we're really going to go multilingual, let's really do it all, but I find I find this to be - it's tedious.
Watch Ingraham’s head explode over Spanish in a presidential debate below, from the June 27, 2019 The Ingraham Angle, via Media Matters.
Yes, she said so.