Twice in the last week, New York Times reporter Alan Rappeport has filed dispatches from the department of grievances about Republicans using language deemed “offensive.”
In his latest, Rappeport wrote Thursday about “an offensive term” GOP presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Donald Trump used this week while campaigning in New Hampshire.
The offensive term in question: “anchor babies,” a shorthand reference to the newborn children of illegal immigrants in the United States. Many believe immigrants travel to the U.S. for the purpose of having children in the country so they are automatically granted U.S. citizenship.
Both Trump and Bush used the term to illustrate that current federal policy is lax on preventing illegal immigration.
“The phrase is as offensive as the word ‘illegals’ for many immigrants who come to America,” Rappeport wrote. The term “anchor baby” has been added to the American Heritage Dictionary, a move many on the Left opposed.
Trump was confronted by another reporter during a press conference in New Hampshire on Wednesday. “Are you aware that the term ‘anchor baby,’ that’s an offensive term,” the reporter said to Trump. “People find that hurtful.”
“You mean it’s not politically correct even though everybody uses it?” Trump said. He asked the reporter to give him a different term to use instead, and the reporter proposed “the child of an undocumented immigrant.”
“No, I’ll use the word anchor baby,” Trump said.
On social media, some people took exception with Rappeport’s story.
“We could say ‘criminals’ instead of ‘illegals,'” one person wrote on Twitter, linking to Rappeport’s article. “Of course it’s offensive, they broke the law.”
“These people are breaking our laws by illegally entering our country, no need for P.C. crap!” wrote another.
Last week, Rappeport highlighted an obscure term, “cuckservative,” which is used by a segment of conservatives online and is seen almost nowhere else outside of fringe political groups.
“The phrase has caught on among a segment of disaffected Republicans, some of whom hold white nationalist ideologies and who feel many of the party’s presidential candidates are not conservative enough,” Rappeport wrote.
The word is a combination of “cuckold,” slang for an emasculated male, and “conservative.”
“Cuckservative” gained prominence when radio host Rush Limbaugh referred to non-confrontational Republicans as “cuckholded Republicans” on his show in late July. From there, some grassroots conservatives used the term online to label any GOP voter or presidential candidate who staked out policy positions deemed insufficiently conservative.
Rappeport consulted the white nationalist group National Policy Institute for a definition. Richard Spencer, the group’s president, is quoted as describing the term as “a very good shorthand meme to express a certain kind of frustration and a certain kind of contempt for mainstream conservatives.”
Conservative writer Milo Yiannopoulos attempted to explain the term on the news website Breitbart by saying that “cuckservative” became popular on the website 4chan, a forum frequented by subculture enthusiasts.
Rappeport did not return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner media desk.
