Trump Goes After GOP Gov. Susana Martinez At New Mexico Rally

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, May 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
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During a Tuesday night rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Donald Trump bashed the state’s Republican governor, Susana Martinez, who has yet to embrace the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

“We have got to get your governor to get going,” Trump told the crowd, according to the Washington Post. “She’s got to do a better job. Okay? Your governor has got to do a better job. She’s not doing the job. Hey! Maybe I’ll run for governor of New Mexico. I’ll get this place going. She’s not doing the job. We’ve got to get her moving. Come on: Let’s go, governor.”

Trump specifically criticized Martinez’s response to the federal government’s plans to resettle Syrian refugees across the United States, including in New Mexico.

“Syrian refugees are being relocated in large numbers to New Mexico. If I was governor, that wouldn’t be happening,” Trump said, according to Yahoo News.

Martinez declined to attend Trump’s rally on Tuesday night, telling local outlets that she was too busy.

“You know, I’m really busy, and I’m the governor of New Mexico, and I’m really focused on what’s going on here in New Mexico,” she said Monday, according to Albuquerque television station KRQE.

Her office responded to Trump’s comments at the rally on Tuesday night, arguing that Trump did not detail how he would help the state as president.

“Apparently, Donald Trump doesn’t realize Governor Martinez wasn’t elected in 2000, that she has fought for welfare reform, and has strongly opposed the President’s Syrian refugee plan. But the pot shots weren’t about policy, they were about politics,” Martinez spokesman Mike Lonergan said in a statement, according to the Washington Post. “And the Governor will not be bullied into supporting a candidate until she is convinced that candidate will fight for New Mexicans. Governor Martinez doesn’t care about what Donald Trump says about her – she cares about what he says he will do to help New Mexicans. She didn’t hear anything about that today.”

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