A conservative audience roared with approval following a woman’s diatribe comparing immigrants to rodents and pests.
The moment came at the end of a focus group at the South Carolina Freedom Summit, when moderator and Republican pollster Frank Luntz asked an audience member if she had any words of advice for 2016 Republican candidates for President.
She did not hold back one bit in a rant that would’ve made Steve King beam with pride:
“One man, one vote. People are comin’ in this country across the borders like rats and roaches in the wood pile. We’ve got a state like Minnesota that says it’s not our business to check ’em out, we just register ’em. We’ve got to get control. That’s what they need to know.”
The audience ate up every word, hooting, cheering, and applauding in approval (video of the moment is captured below).
According to the Huffington Post, this wasn’t just any audience member either, but the mother-in-law of Citizens United Foundation head and South Carolina Freedom Summit organizer, Dave Bossie.
Later on that day on Twitter, Luntz attempted to downplay the audience’s extremism, saying he not only tried to take the microphone away from the woman, but that he’s been a proponent of “sensible “ immigration reform.
But as is very clear in the video, Luntz not only smiles at her comments, but he doesn’t attempt to take the mic away from the woman until after she’s finished the rodent portion of her rant. Then to add a little salt on our wounds, Luntz asks the cheering audience, “How many of you would vote for her for President?”
Sure is a funny way of showing your support for immigrants, Frank.
As HuffPo reports, the woman’s comments were in no way an outlier at the event. Earlier that same day, Steve King (an organizer of the Iowa version of the Freedom Summit) told an audience he’d “deport a Leftist” for “every time we let an immigrant in.”
Multiple 2016 Republican candidates for President attended the summit, including Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz, who just last month spoke to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and boasted about being a “proponent” of immigration reform.
No word if the woman had anything to say about Canada-born and immigrant son Cruz.
A video of the woman’s anti-immigrant rant at the South Carolina Freedom Summit below.