A CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter is feeling the heat after criticizing presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) for delivering a bilingual speech.
Scottie Nell Hughes ignited the wrath of Twitter on Saturday after she somehow spun Spanish speakers as un-American while criticizing Kaine’s speech in Miami.
“What Mr. Trump did, he spoke in a language all Americans can understand ― that is English,” Hughes told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer while praising the Republican presidential nominee.
“I didn’t have to get a translator for anything that was going on at the [Republican National Convention] this week,” she continued.
“I’m hoping I’m not going to have to start brushing up on my ‘Dora the Explorer’ to understand some of the speeches given this week,” she added, referencing the children’s cartoon that stars a child who can speak English and Spanish.
Hughes’ comments were not only ignorant but also wrong, on several levels.
State Sen. Ralph Alvarado, a rising GOP star who was the first Hispanic elected to state office in Kentucky, also spoke Spanish during a primetime slot on the RNC’s floor last week.
And it makes sense: The United States last year surpassed Spain as the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, just after Mexico. There are 41 million native Spanish speakers and more than 11 million bilingual speakers, The Guardian reported, citing a report by The Instituto Cervantes.
Hughes later backtracked in a statement posted to Twitter in which she called her comments “wrong.” She also admitted to teaching her own children Spanish.
Her apology failed to appease many, however.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.