A pair of congressional Democrats took turns hurling insults at Republican presidential candidates and their supporters Tuesday in a press call hosted by the Democratic National Committee.
California Reps. Judy Chu and Mike Honda, who serve as chair and chair emeritus of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, participated in the conference call focused on discussing the GOP field’s “damaging” policies toward Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAIP) communities.
For the duration of the call, Chu repeatedly referred to the GOP hopefuls as “clowns” and accused the 15-person field of being “more extreme” than Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who maintained the No. 1 spot in this week’s Washington Examiner presidential power rankings, on issues ranging from the economy to taxes.
“This week the GOP presidential circus will be making its way to Simi Valley, Calif.,” Chu said, in reference to the second Republican debate scheduled for Wednesday. “Trump is clearly driving the GOP clown show, but they’re all wearing fake paint and red noses.”
Both representatives took turns blasting Republican candidates for using the phrase “anchor baby” to describe children born to illegal-immigrant parents in the U.S., and for espousing policies that are “wrong for the AAIP community on everything from education to families.”
“Jeb Bush was the first to slur children born in America to immigrant parents,” Chu told members of the media. “The ultimate irony here is that conservative champion Ronald Reagan signed legislation giving amnesty to 3 million immigrants.”
Asked during the press call about the 47 percent of Republican voters in Iowa who, in a recent Bloomberg Politics-Des Moines Register poll, indicated they support Donald Trump’s call for mass deportations, Honda said they weren’t “sound thinkers.”
“Donald Trump is appealing to the worst instinct of Americans — that is, blaming immigrants for the problems of America,” he told the Washington Examiner.
“None of the Democratic candidates would even come close to the type of stupid rhetoric from the Republican candidates,” he added.
Honda continued, saying “it’s laughable that Trump would be leading, but it’s also kind of sad that folks in the Republican Party agree with him.”
Last week, a poll of American voters conducted by Survey USA showed Trump leading Clinton 45 to 40 percent in a head-to-head general election matchup. The outspoken billionaire also led Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 44-40, and potential Democratic candidate Vice President Joe Biden, 44-42, in the same poll.
