Conservative commentator Jeffrey Lord got into an on-air argument with Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ana Navarro on Monday after he suggested that she could not be an American and a Latina at the same time.
The argument came during a CNN roundtable on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s comments condemning Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists.
Lord, who supports Trump’s views, initially took issue with Navarro’s suggestion that the former reality television star “is not a legitimate candidate.” He insisted Trump’s comments only applied to undocumented immigrants, and that those who entered the U.S. legally should not feel targeted.
“Thank you for telling me what should be insulting,” Navarro snapped back. “But see, I’m one of those Latinos that came here with a visa on a plane, that went through a process.”
Lord contended that Navarro, who was born in Nicaragua, could no longer define herself as a Latino because she had been naturalized as a U.S. citizen.
“I don’t think you’re a Latino,” he told her. “I think you’re an American just like me.”
Navarro tried to explain the distinction, saying she was “an American who was born in Nicaragua and was naturalized under Ronald Reagan’s amnesty.” But Lord refused to accept these overlapping definitions, saying, “There are no Latinos in this country, there are no African-Americans. We are all Americans.”
Watch the full clip below, from Media Matters:
