Pat Buchanan: Trump the 'Favorite for the 2016 GOP Nomination'

Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan declared Saturday that Donald Trump was "pretty-much the favorite for the Republican nomination in 2016" and defended his use of the term "anchor babies" when discussing illegal immigration.

"He certainly is an outsider insurgent the way I was in 1992 and 1996," the former GOP presidential candidate told Michael Smerconish on CNN. "He's also taken the issue of immigration and unfair trade deals that robbed the country of jobs and investment.

"He's riding the issues extremely well," he said.

Buchanan said that "anchor babies" was the correct term for illegals who come to the United States to birth their children to remain in this country and that "political correctness is killing this country.

"There is nothing demeaning about saying 'anchor baby,'" he told Smerconish. "It anchors the family in the United States. It's a child of an illegal alien who broke into the country and the law.

"He's got a valid point," Buchanan said of Trump. "It's a tremendous issue. People are upset by it — and the media are saying: 'Why did you use those two words? Why don't you get another two words.'

"What is the matter with this country, given the crises we're in, when people are running around asking if the verbiage is right or not?"

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