Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, defended his decision to release a list of names and employers of 44 people in San Antonio who contributed the maximum allowable amounts to President Donald Trump's campaign, saying Wednesday he wanted them to know their money was being spent on advertising talking about Hispanics "invading" the United States.
"My post was actually a lament," Rep. Castro, who is chairing his brother Julian's bid for the White House, told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "If you look at my language, I said it's sad these folks, many of who are prominent business owners in San Antonio, a city that's about 65% Hispanic, their customers, the people that have made them wealthy, employees, people who have worked for them for years, many of their employees are Hispanics and they're giving their money to [ads] talking about Hispanics invading our country."
Castro further complained, "we patronize these places," but there is a cost to such advertising and rhetoric, as seen in the shootings that claimed 22 lives in El Paso over the weekend.
"The manifesto that guy wrote could have been written by the people that write Trump's speeches," Castro said.
Further, he pointed out political contributions are public records, and the graphic shows the name of many prominent business owners, most of them public figures.
"Their money is being taken and used to fuel these hateful ads," Castro said. "It has put millions of people in this country in fear. There are people right now living in fear, and I don't think the president understands that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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