At a mostly unremarkable speech at the annual convention of the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Latino advocacy group, Hillary Clinton said she had one word for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump: “Basta!”
“Enough,” the Democrat translated, as she slammed the billionaire real estate mogul for his comments last month about immigrants.
Clinton spent most of her speech at the convention, held in Kansas City, rehashing remarks she made earlier Monday in New York City. There Clinton gave her first general overview of her campaign economic agenda.
At the La Raza convention, Clinton reiterated her call for comprehensive immigration reform and said that she would fight to not only uphold President Obama’s executive amnesty actions but go even further. She also said she would do everything she could to protect DREAMers from deportation.
But her most passionate remarks were saved for Trump and his fellow Republicans.
“It was appalling to hear Donald Trump describe immigrants as drug dealers, rapists, and criminals,” Clinton said, referring to comments the real estate billionaire made during his campaign kickoff speech.
“When people and businesses everywhere rejected his hateful comments, did he apologize?” Clinton asked. “No, he doubled down. It’s shameful, and no one should stand for it.”
“And to all the other Republicans running for president, why did it take weeks for most of you to speak out?” Clinton continued.
“You’re normally such a talkative bunch. Suddenly you have nothing to say. The sad truth is that even if some of the other candidates now condemn those words, if you look at many of their policies, it’s hard to tell the difference.”
While Clinton says she has little tolerance for Trump’s comments about immigrants, she will apparently put up with his money.
Trump has donated more than $100,000 to Clinton’s family charity, the Clinton Foundation. He and his son, Donald Trump, Jr., also donated to Clinton’s Senate and presidential campaigns during the 2000s.
While companies like NBC, Macy’s and NASCAR have cut ties with Trump, the Clinton Foundation has declined to return his donation. Clinton has also not indicated that she will return the political donations Trump has given her.