House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is hammering the Republicans’ campaign arm for falsely characterizing a Hispanic member of Congress as “an illegal immigrant.”
The National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) on Wednesday blasted a message on social media attacking Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), who is a U.S. citizen, over his critical response to President Trump’s speech to Congress the night before.
“Democrats literally chose an illegal immigrant to give their response to President Trump’s address,” the NRCC posted on the social platform X. “Predictably, this radical called Trump’s presidency a ‘reign of terror.’”
“Democrats couldn’t be more disconnected from the American people.”
Jeffries, who also hails from New York City, wasted no time responding to the smear with a barb of his own.
“These people are disgusting,” he wrote on X.
Espaillat, 70, was born in the Dominican Republic in 1954 and immigrated to the United States with his family a decade later. The family overstayed its tourist visa and lived in the country without proper documents for a time, then obtained green cards within a year of the expiration. He became a citizen before the age of 30 and was first elected to the House in 2016, becoming the first formerly undocumented immigrant to join Congress.
At the start of this year, Espaillat became head of the Congressional Hispanic Congress (CHC), which put out its own statement attacking the NRCC’s false characterization.
“The xenophobic rhetoric from Trump Republicans proves that you can follow the law, get your papers, become a citizen, get elected to Congress — swear multiple oaths to protect and defend the Constitution — and all you will ever be to Trump Republicans: an ‘illegal immigrant,’” the group posted on X.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the NRCC defended the initial statement as “facts” and dismissed the criticisms, saying Democrats should focus their outrage instead toward issues such as public safety.
“Democrats caring more about policing words and fighting facts instead of policing our border and fighting crime shows just how out of touch they are,” the spokesperson said in an email.
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