Politics

Lautenberg: Races, religions could ‘get along’ if ‘Republicans would leave us alone’ [VIDEO]

Nicholas Ballasy Senior Video Reporter
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New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg told The Daily Caller that “we’re a nation of different cultures, different races, different religions, and we can get along if the Republicans would leave us alone.”

Lautenberg’s comments came at a March 7 event held by Comcast to launch four independent minority-owned networks distributed by the company.

“They can communicate in a way that attracts millions of people as opposed to having to go through something where it’s not comfortable. People should be comfortable. Whatever your background is, this is a place for comfort to reign, and it does. And this is terrific. So I came here to salute them for this excellent effort,” said Lautenberg, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Lautenberg told TheDC he supports the decision made by the FCC to require Comcast to expand minority programming as a condition of its merger with NBC Universal.

“I absolutely do, because you have to be very careful. It’s so easy to be left out and it’s hard to get in, and we have now about [a] 15 percent Latino part of our population. To not make sure that they’re represented, other parts of the minority community, it’s silly,” he said.

Celebrities Magic Johnson, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Robert Rodriquez are among the owners of the new networks.

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