Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has accepted a dinner date at a Mexican restaurant with Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera, an outspoken advocate for relaxed immigration laws.
On his WABC New York radio show Wednesday, Rivera told Trump he thought the news media had “demonized” Trump for his views on immigration policy and said that they should go to a Mexican restaurant to meet the people who work there.
“Go say hi to the staff, talk with some of the folks, just ordinary, regular, normal folks,” Rivera said. “Tell them how you really feel. Let them see how you really are.”
Trump said he agreed that he had been demonized and said he employs many Hispanics, citing property he developed in Miami. Asked again by Rivera to dine together at a Mexican restaurant, Trump said yes.
“I don’t mind, I’d do that in two seconds,” Trump said.
“We’ll have some rice and beans. You’ll meet some of my relatives. These are nice, law-abiding people,” Rivera said
In an email to the Washington Examiner media desk, Rivera said he hoped the meet-up would actually happen.
“I’m totally serious,” Rivera said. “He’s my friend and I want the Latino community to see the real person and not the caricature. That, of course, assumes that he will moderate some of his rough statements and policies about undocumented immigrants. As I just said to him, he can accomplish most of the same goals, like securing the border and bringing order to immigration, without demonizing a whole race of people. Bottom line, he doesn’t have to be cruel to be effective on this incendiary issue.”
Rivera also used his show to ask Trump to “ease off a little bit” of the fiery anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric that the Republican presidential candidate has become known for. “I have no objection to that at all,” Trump said.
Trump’s campaign stirred controversy from the time he launched it in June, when he said many of illegal immigrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border are criminals and rapists.
He has maintained attention from the press with bold declarations that, as president, he would demand that Mexico pay for a tall wall to be built across the Southern border. He has also said that illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. would have to leave the country and apply for re-entry.
Rivera, who competed on Trump’s former NBC show “Celebrity Apprentice,” has been critical of Trump in the past. He called on Trump to apologize for calling immigrants “rapists,” but Trump stood by his comments.
Rivera said he was “proud” of Trump, who is currently leading the Republican field in national polls and some state polls.
