President Trump knocked around Democrats and a potential 2020 opponent at an event on Monday where he hammered extremists waging war on immigration officers as having ‘no guts’ or courage.
It was the president’s comments about a Hispanic-American agent whom he invited to take the stage at the White House event that generated buzz, however.
Trump said that border patrol agent Adrian Anzaldua ‘speaks perfect English’ when he brought him to the stage.
The president’s comments about a Hispanic-American agent whom he invited to take the stage at the White House event that generated buzz on Monday
Trump said that border patrol agent Adrian Anzaldua ‘speaks perfect English’ when he brought him to the stage
Anzaldua did not react to the off-the-cuff remark as he commanded the podium at the event that the White House billed as a celebration of America’s customs and border protection agents and immigration and customs officers
Anzaldua was in the audience when Trump made the off-the-cuff remark. He smiled widely and shook the president’s hand as he came forward to command the podium at the event that the White House billed as a celebration of America’s Customs and Border Protection agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Trump hailed Anzaldua as a hero, recounting his run-in last week with a human smuggler in Laredo who was ‘locking, and really locking a horrible 78 illegal aliens inside of a trailer.’
‘The border patrol agent who caught the accused and likely really saved many lives, he’s here with us, and Adrian, where is Adrian? Adrian’s here with us. Thank you Adrian. Great job. Thank you. It’s a lot of lives. That’s great,’ Trump said.
He added: ‘Adrian come here I want to ask you a question.’
‘Come here, you’re not nervous, right?’ he asked. ‘Speaks perfect English.’
Repeating himself, the president told the border patrol agent, ‘Come here I want to ask you about. 78 lives. You saved 78 people. So how did you feel that there were people in that trailer. There’s a lot of trailers around. Please?
‘He didn’t know that he was going to do this, but it’s just of interest,’ Trump said.
Trump also smacked activists defacing property and assaulting officers as ‘open border radicals’ who represent a small faction of Americans
Anzaldua explained how he caught the smuggler after conducting a search of his vehicle.
‘Subsequently I opened the low latch … and revealed a lot of subjects. I quickly asked for backup,’ he said. ‘The subjects were transported back to the check point and all of them were in good health.’
After Anzaldua finished his story, the president announced to laughter: ‘What a good job he did. What a good job … Tomorrow, he will be announcing that he’s running for office.’
Trump smacked activists defacing property and assaulting officers as ‘open border radicals’ who represent a small faction of Americans.
‘The vast majority,’ he said, ‘they’re all with you. Just a small group that gets a lot of publicity because they have no courage, they have no guts, they just have big loud mouths. And we don’t want to put up with that.’
Trump took a moment to hammer New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a political opponent, during the event also.
Remarking on Cuomo’s claim that America never was great, Trump told the hand-picked audience, ‘You heard that…I think that’s the end of that career.’