Hours ahead of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s appearance in New Mexico, Democrats who support Hillary Clinton slammed him at a press conference.
Former Albuquerque mayor Martin Chavez.
Former Albuquerque mayor Martin Chavez recounted when a white supremacist group sought to meet near Albuquerque. Chavez said he issued a “Proclamation of Un-welcome” against the group.
“I said New Mexico and Albuquerque are not a place where we welcome people who hate,” he said.
“Today we should issue a proclamation of unwelcome to Donald Trump,” Chavez continued. “He’s a person of hatred, of bigotry, of racism. He divides us, he does not unite.”
Chavez also slammed Trump’s infamous Cinco de Mayo tweet.
“If it was Cinco de Mayo, I guess maybe he’d share a taco bowl with us,” he said. “Well, that’s not New Mexico. Donald Trump is not New Mexico, Donald Trump is not welcome in New Mexico.”
Chavez said he believed New Mexico Republicans would reject Trump in the primary—and that he was sure New Mexico voters at large would do so this November.
Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins agreed and expanded, noting other marginalized groups.
“Intolerance has no place in New Mexico,” she said. “Bigotry has no place in New Mexico.”
Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins.
Former State Treasurer James Lewis criticized Trump for remarks he made regarding the housing crisis that ended up as a major cause of the recession last decade.
This has been a major talking point for Clinton’s campaign today. The campaign released an ad quoting Trump rooting for the housing bubble to burst.
“I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy,” Trump said in 2006. “If there is a bubble burst, as they call it, you can make a lot of money.”
“In the middle of the calamity, Trump aimed to do what Trump does best,” former State Treasurer James Lewis said. “And that is to put himself above everybody else.”
Lewis also said that Trump used money from a fund designed to help small businesses impacted by the 9/11 terror attacks in New York.
A Super PAC that opposes trump brought up these allegations in April.
Trump responded by issuing a statement saying, ““It was probably a reimbursement for the fact that I allowed people, for many months, to stay in the building, use the building and store things in the building.”
“It is clear that Donald Trump is only for himself at the expense of others,” former State Treasurer James Lewis said.
Bernalillo County Assessor Tanya Giddings said that Trump should release his tax returns, noting that every major presidential nominee for decades had done so.
Earlier in the day, the Republican Party of New Mexico said Democrats were hypocrites.
“New Mexico Democrats are trying to deflect from Hillary Clinton’s and their own long history of inflammatory, racially-charged attacks by unfairly smearing Donald Trump, but this is political hypocrisy at its worst,” said Republican Party of New Mexico Spokesman Tucker Keene. “It’s exactly that kind of political hypocrisy that is driving voters in New Mexico and elsewhere to support Donald Trump.”
The Republican Party of New Mexico linked to a Huffington Post blog post by Clinton critic James Rucker.
While Democrats denounced Trump, prominent Republicans aren’t exactly embracing Trump.
Gov. Susana Martinez, Lt. Gov. John Sanchez and Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry all have said they will not attend Trump’s rally. All have also declined to endorse Trump.
