Kaine: Trump thinks Latino outreach is a taco bowl tweet

Trump is “someone who thinks ‘Latino outreach’ means tweeting out a picture of a taco bowl,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee said, according to a translation provided to the Washington Examiner by the Clinton campaign

Kaine’s remarks in Tuscon, Ariz., Thursday evening were made in reference specifically to a tweet Trump sent in May commemorating Cinco de Mayo.

“Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!” the GOP nominee said on social media.

Kaine continued Thursday, telling supporters that Trump isn’t just insensitive, but that he’s also bigoted against Latinos.

“In the first weeks of his campaign, Donald Trump said that immigrants from Mexico are drug dealers, rapists, murderers. In the last debate, Trump referred to them as ‘bad hombres,'” the senator said.

“He insists that ‘this is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.’ He doesn’t understand that multilingual and bilingual families contribute to the diversity that makes our nation strong,” he added.

Kaine’s speech Thursday evening, which was delivered entirely in Spanish, comes amid the campaign’s push to court voters in deep red states.

The Democratic nominee herself campaigned this week in Tempe, Ariz.

Hillary Clinton’s team explained earlier this week, “For the first time since 1996, Arizona is competitive in the presidential election due to demographic shifts and a dramatic increase in Latino voter registration over the last several months. Arizona has also seen strong growth in voter enthusiasm in support of Hillary Clinton’s positive, inclusive vision, and her commitment from day one to listening to the concerns of the Latino community.”

“At the same time, Arizonans have increasingly rejected Donald Trump‘s offensive and dangerously divisive rhetoric,” they said. “In Tucson, with one day left of in-person early vote, he will host a GOTV rally with supporters.”

Trump leads by a comfortable 4-point margin in Arizona, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.

However, a number of political analysts have suggested Democratic-leaning Hispanics may turn out in numbers great enough to hand the Grand Canyon State to Clinton on Nov. 8.

Clinton leads Trump nationwide with Hispanic likely voters by more than 50 points, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released on Oct. 17.

The Clinton campaign has deployed millions of dollars and campaign assets recently there.

“In Arizona, we are going to be expanding our television buy and dramatically expanding our direct mail and digital advertising programs by over $2 million,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters recently.

Along with ad buys, the Clinton campaign has also dispatched some of its tops surrogates to the area, including First Lady Michelle Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Chelsea Clinton.

Arizona has gone red in nine out of the last 10 presidential elections. The last time that the Grand Canyon State voted to put a Democrat in the White House was in 1996 when it went blue for Bill Clinton.