One of the nation’s most prominent immigration hardliners said on Sunday that Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump needs to develop some tact when peddling his harsh anti-immigrant beliefs.
Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) told the Denver Post that the real estate mogul “needs to be a little bit more artful” when talking about his views on immigration.
Tancredo, who ran for president in 2008, said he would offer Trump the wisdom of his years fighting the immigration wars — for a price.
“He should take lessons from me on how to talk to the press. For a small fee — no, actually for a very large fee — I will help him out. You’ve got to learn how to talk about it, which takes years of practice, which God knows I’ve had,” Tancredo told the Post.
Tancredo has had an extreme obsession with immigration and border issues. Some highlights include his claim that then-Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was a member of the “Latino KKK” for her membership with National Council of La Raza and that Miami was becoming “a Third World country.”
Trump originally came under harsh criticism for his comments about Mexican immigrants during presidential announcement speech last month.
“They’re sending people that have lots of problems,” Trump said. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
As a result, NBC, Univision, Macy’s, NASCAR and others either dropped Trump-branded merchandise or severed their relationships with him.
This post has been updated.
h/t Huffington Post
