Trump talks immigration, Clinton’s “bigoted” policies & the alt-right with @andersoncooper https://t.co/tsDQMQZ23m pic.twitter.com/qeFCe0mB8O
— CNN (@CNN) August 26, 2016
On Thursday night, Donald Trump appeared on CNN to speak with Anderson Cooper about rather heavy subject matter. Cooper wished to discuss why the Republican nominee called Hillary Clinton a “bigot” during a Mississippi rally. Well, Trump wasn’t very cooperative in explaining his reasoning.
Naturally, Trump doubled down on the word itself: “Well, she is a bigot.” Cooper wished to know exactly why Trump thought so: “But how is she bigoted? Bigotry is having hatred towards a particular group.” Trump said that Clinton is bad for African-Americans and Hispanics because she’s “not doing anything for those communities.” Cooper pressed forth: “So you’re saying she has hatred or dislike of black people?” Trump wouldn’t answer, so Cooper reminded Trump how he called Clinton “personally bigoted,” to which Trump agreed: “Oh she is. Of course she is. She’s totally bigoted, there’s no question about that.”
The conversation wasn’t very productive at that point, so Cooper informed Trump that the B-word “does imply that she has antipathy, that she has hatred toward, I guess in this case you’re talking about African-Americans, but I don’t want to put words in your mouth.” Trump simply kept talking about poverty, and Cooper wanted to know, “But hatred is at the core of that? Or dislike of African-Americans?”
All Trump could say in response was, “Or maybe she’s lazy.”
Trump either doesn’t understand what “bigot” means, or he refused to articulate the definition. He did, however, admit something odd when Cooper asked if he’s embracing the “Alt-Right” movement, which was leveled as an accusation by Clinton. Trump replied, “I don’t even know. Nobody even knows what it is.”
In another portion of the interview, Trump flip-flopped on his Wednesday night immigration flip-flop. He had appeared in a prerecorded town hall with Sean Hannity to switch courses on immigration. Trump told Hannity that he’d still build his Wall, but he backtracked on his infamous mass-deportation proposal. Trump told Hannity that, instead, he’d immediately boot the “bad ones” and keep the “good ones” around if they paid back taxes. Aaand of course he’s backtracking again.
Trump now tells Cooper that these “good” immigrants will also have to leave the country after all. Once they’re out, they can try to work their way back into America: “When they come back in, then they can start paying taxes, but there is no path to legalization unless they leave the country and then come back.” Amazing.
You can watch Trump’s full interview with Cooper below.
