Trump: New Mexico's Latina governor is 'not doing the job' and needs to 'get moving'

By Fusion Staff  |  May 25, 2016 | 4:50pm
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Donald Trump is supposedly trying to “unify” the Republican Party, and he’s decided the best way is to attack one of its highest-ranking Latina officials.

At a rally Tuesday night in Albuquerque, the presumptive GOP nominee called out New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez for “not doing the job.” He told the crowd, “Since 2000, the number of people on food stamps in New Mexico has tripled. We have to get your governor to get going. She has to do a better job, OK?”

Trump’s attack on Martinez, who was elected in 2010, came after she announced that she was “too busy” to attend the rally.

He later suggested that he might do a better job running the state: “Hey, maybe I’ll run for governor of New Mexico. I’ll get this place going. We’ve got to get her moving. Come on, let’s go, governor.”

Close to half of New Mexico’s population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, making it the most densely Latino state in the country. Trump has historically high unfavorable ratings among Latinos. During his campaign he has called Mexican immigrants “rapists,” kicked Latino reporters out of his events, and blamed Latino people and other minorities for violent crime in America.

That all happened before he insinuated that New Mexico’s Latina governor is lazy.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, a spokesman for Martinez responded by saying that the Governor would “not be bullied into supporting [the] candidate.”

 
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