PHILADELPHIA — Julian Castro, the housing secretary who was floated as a possible running mate for Hillary Clinton, on Monday said stories about division among Democrats were being exaggerated by a media desperate to create a “false equivalency” with last week’s Republican convention in Cleveland.
“There was a narrative that was created last week in Cleveland of the Republican Party in chaos,” Castro told the Washington Examiner from the convention floor. “It’s in the DNA of the media to create a false equivalency. And so they’re taking a relatively few people who are booing and then elevating that and making that the entire story of this convention. It doesn’t reflect the vast majority of delegates who are ready to support Hillary Clinton and I’m confident that they’re going to do that. Sen. Sanders has been fantastic in trying to unify the party.”
Earlier on Monday, Sanders supporters booed the senator’s urging them to vote for Clinton in the wake of a leaked emails showing the DNC favored Clinton during the primary process.
Castro said that he thought that Hispanic voters would rally around Clinton in November.
“I believe that Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic agenda has motivated the Hispanic community unlike any candidate I’ve ever seen,” Castro said. “Now it’s up to the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party to actually bring them out to vote. I believe that if the percentage of turnout last time was 48 percent in 2012, I expect it to go into at least the low 50s this year.”
Some Hispanic Democrats said they were disappointed when Clinton didn’t pick a Hispanic for vice president.
Asked about this, Castro said, “Tim Kaine is an excellent choice and I think he’ll make a fantastic vice president. Hillary and Tim have a broad inclusive view of America and the Latino community is very a part of that vision.”
