Mika Brzezinski Claims Trump Never Really Said That Most Mexican Immigrants Are Criminals

Early on during the Summer of Trump, one thing became extremely clear early on — the Morning Joe crew was going to hop on the Trump train and ride it for all its worth. Since spray tan connoisseur and real estate mogul Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President in June, the MSNBC morning program has had the celebrity billionaire appear on the program dozens of times. Whenever The Donald isn’t calling in and spewing out his special brand of nonsense, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are going out of their way to talk about the man and how great his campaign has been so far.

To see just how much the two are in the tank for Trump, you need look no further than Wednesday morning’s broadcast. Mika and Joe brought on Alfonso Aguilar, Director of Latino Partnership for American Principles Project, a conservative think tank. Aguilar worked in the Department of Homeland Security for the Bush Administration prior to joining APP. Unlike many right-wing groups, the American Principles Project is for immigration reform, and Aguilar is one of their public faces in that advocacy.

Well, as one would imagine, Aguilar isn’t much of a Trump fan, considering that he called most Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals when he started his campaign. And it isn’t like the former reality TV star has tempered his rhetoric since. However, when highlighting Trump’s comments about Mexicans during his Morning Joe appearance, Mika went out of her way to tell Aguilar that he was wrong in his assessment of the GOP Presidential frontrunner’s remarks.

Below is the transcript from the show, courtesy of Media Matters:

WILLIE GEIST: Mr. Aguilar, do you agree, I know you don’t like Donald Trump’s rhetoric and I know you don’t like most of his policy proposals, but do you agree with him that illegal immigration is a big problem in the United States?

ALFONSO AGUILAR: Oh, absolutely. But I think he’s saying much more than that. It would be very naive to say that he’s just saying that it’s a problem. He’s saying things like the majority of undocumented immigrants for Mexico are rapists and criminals and we have to deport everyone. That is absolutely ridiculous. I’ve worked in the Department of Homeland Security for six years and I don’t know of one serious law enforcement official that believes that we can deport every single undocumented immigrant. He’s just not a serious candidate and he’s just saying that, feeding red meat to a base within the conservative base of the Republican Party but he’s not going to get the support of Latino voters and as we were saying Latinos are going to be decisive in this election.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Sir, if we could be careful on both sides of this and I’m certainly not jumping to Trump’s defense here but you just made two comments that, I’m sorry, where did he say those exact words?

JOE SCARBOROUGH: What, that most were rapists?

BRZEZINSKI: He said that all are rapists?

SCARBOROUGH: I don’t think that’s exactly what he said, is it?

BREZINSKI: I’m not sure sure that’s exactly what he said. I don’t want to get into an argument over it.

AGUILAR: Let’s be fair.

BRZEZINSKI: You have to be careful as well with words.

Oof. After Brzezinski had lectured Aguilar on semantics, the conservative activist shot back, telling the two hosts that however you slice and dice Trump’s comments, it is pretty obvious that the Latino community hates his fucking guts. Why? Because he’s been an asshole to them the whole time he’s run his campaign.

AGUILAR: Well, I am very careful. If you talk to Latino communities, that’s what they understood. He said they’re criminals and rapists. And then he said some may be good people. What do you assume from that that he’s saying? That he’s saying that the majority are bad people. Regardless of how you interpret his comments, he’s continuously attacking undocumented immigrants, making generalizations that are unfair. I mean if you want to win their vote, if you want to win the vote of a political block, in this case Latino voters, you don’t insult them.

After his appearance, Aguilar took to Twitter to reiterate that he hadn’t mischaracterized the ex-Apprentice star’s words, directing his tweet at Mika.

.@Morning_Joe @morningmika Trump said Mex immigrants r rapists “and some, I assume, are good people.” He’s clearly implying most r criminals

— Alfonso Aguilar (@amigoaguilar) October 28, 2015