Latina Lista: News from the Latinx perspective > Palabra Final > Politics > Univision’s Al Punto: Interview with Andrew Breitbart, Tea Party Leader

Univision’s Al Punto: Interview with Andrew Breitbart, Tea Party Leader

Air Date: Sunday, July 10, 2011

Key:

JR: Jorge Ramos
AB: Andrew Breitbart

JR: MR. BREIBART, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TALKING TO US.

AB: Thank you very much Jorge.

JR: LET ME START BY ASKING YOU ABOUT CONGRESSMAN ANTHONY WEINER. DO YOU TAKE RESPONSIBILITY? DO YOU TAKE CREDIT FOR HIS DOWNFALL?

AB: I think that he’s responsible for his downfall. I mean he’s the one who put himself into this position by sending out these type of pictures out to complete strangers and putting a sitting Congressman in a position to be blackmailed. And eventually Congressman Weiner had to admit that he was guilty because we found another woman who had another series of photos that were even more graphic than the ones we had put out at the beginning.

JR: YOU’RE ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNIZED FACES WITHIN THE TEA PARTY. IS THERE A CONCERTED EFFORT BY THE TEA PARTY TO TRY TO REACH THE HISPANIC VOTERS?

AB: I don’t know if there’s a concerted effort. It’s such an amorphous group, it’s a grassroots effort and there’s no, there’s not enough central organization but I am a member of the Tea Party. I am a defender of the Tea Party. I would say that one of the greatest voices in the Tea Party is a guy by the name of Tito Muñoz. He goes by the name of “Tito the builder,” and he is such a strong advocate of why it’s so great to be an American, and in Florida we have a person by the name of Senator Marco Rubio who could not be more popular. In fact, he would not have been elected to the Senate if there wasn’t a Tea Party and so I consider a privilege to come on Univision to talk about the Tea Party to say that in America we need members of the Latino community to come to the Tea Party movement and enrich the Tea Party.

JR: BUT SO FAR, AS YOU KNOW, SEVEN OUT OF 10 LATINOS TEND TO VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOT FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY NOT EVEN FOR THE TEA PARTY, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH THE REPUBLICANS IN TRYING TO REACH THE HISPANIC VOTERS? WHY ARE YOU NOT SUCCEEDING?

AB: Well, because the Republican Party are filled with cowards they’re afraid to reach out to the Hispanic community, they’re afraid to reach out to the black community. Because the Democratic Party has formed a perfect union with the mainstream media to scare Republicans, to say that they’re gonna be called racists or sexists or homophobic if they reach out to minorities.

JR: BUT, DON’T YOU THINK THAT PART OF THE REASON WHY MANY LATINOS ARE NOT VOTING FOR EITHER THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OR THE TEA PARTY ITS BECAUSE THEY DO NOT SUPPORT IMMIGRATION REFORM? WHAT WOULD YOU DO, FOR INSTANCE, WITH THE 12 MILLION UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN THIS COUNTRY? WHAT’S YOUR PLAN?

AB: I happen to believe in immigration reform but I don’t believe that that means that every person who has come into this country should be able to stay. There are too many people that I know who have tried to come in the other way for 10 years and can’t get in there. I have friends who are Latinos who believe in that as well. So I don’t want to be pitted as a person who is anti-Latino or anti-Hispanic because I believe in the laws. What I do know about Mexico…

JR: BUT WHAT WOULD YOU DO…

AB: It is…Let me…

JR: BECAUSE PROBABLY THAT’S THE QUESTION…

AB: What I do know about Mexico…

JR: WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH THE UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS BECAUSE I THINK THAT’S THE MAIN QUESTION.

AB: We have to figure…

JR: THERE ARE 11 OR 12 MILLION UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS.

AB: Yeah, I would say that there are probably more, than that in the United States. This has been a huge problem for a very long period of time that we have, that Mexico’s economy and Mexico’s socialist orientation makes it so that people want to come to the United States in such numbers. I wish that we could figure out a way to do this in a legal fashion because I believe in the Latino culture.

JR: LET ME ASK YOU ABOUT THE 14TH AMMENDMENT. AS YOU KNOW THERE ARE MANY REPUBLICANS. MANY PEOPLE IN THE TEA PARTY WHO SUPPORT CHANGING THE 14TH AMMENDMENT’S SO, MANY CHILDREN OF UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS WOULD NOT AUTOMATICALLY BECOME U.S. CITIZENS, WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON THIS?

AB: I am a constitutionalist. I believe in the constitution. I don’t believe in altering the constitution. I’m not up for changing the 10th amendment or the 14th amendment, the first amendment or the second amendment.

JR: IN ONE OF YOUR WEBSITES, IN “BIG PEACE,” THERE WAS AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY JASON BRADLEY TITLED “TERROR BABIES: A GROWING NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT.” DO YOU SHARE MR. BRADLEY’S POINT OF VIEW?

AB: I didn’t even read that article but I can tell you this, I created the Huffington Post in the United States of America which is a left of center blog. I created my blogs which are mostly right of center and I believe in open debate in our society. That’s why I believe so strongly in the first amendment, so I don’t know the specifics of that article, had I known going into this interview, I would’ve read it and we could have talked about the specifics.

JR: WELL THE SPECIFICS IS THAT MR. BRADLEY’S VIEW IS THAT CHILDREN BORN IN THE U.S. TO UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS ARE TERROR BABIES.

AB: I’ve never read that, I’ve never heard that and I’d have to see the context of that to give you an opinion. I would never call people that are born in this country who are from Mexico terror babies.

JR: ARE YOU A BIG PROPONENT OF ENGLISH ONLY IN THIS COUNTRY?

AB: Well, I certainly like that the Spanish language is spoken around me. But I do believe that in America there needs to be a primary language and that English should be that language, it’s not a radical position, it’s a position that’s held by countless people who are Latino. We need to find ways to communicate with each other…

JR: BUT WE DO, DON’T WE?

AB: …and not divide it…

JR: …I MEAN, I HAVE AN ACCENT AND WE CAN COMMUNICATE. IS THERE A NEED TO MAKE ENGLISH THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE?

AB: Well call me a radical, I think that is one position where I think that when people come here they benefit greatly, I think that when you sequester yourself, when you put yourself into another area where you can’t be part of the main traditional culture you’re limiting your possibilities in the United States and I think that’s one problem…

JR: WHAT’S WRONG WITH BEING BILINGUAL?

AB: One of the…

JR: WHAT’S WRONG WITH BEING BILINGUAL?

AB: There’s no problem, there’s nothing wrong with being bilingual to say English only does not mean that – you know, I took Spanish in high school and it wasn’t because it was a requirement, it was because in America we believe in free choices and if you want to take a second language that’s perfectly fine but I’m telling you the limit. One limits oneself in this country if you come as a legal immigrant to this country and you choose to only speak your language whether it be Polish or Russian like many of my own relatives who came here if you speak only Russian and Polish you’re limiting your opportunities in the United States. I have a major problem with the division that occurs because of the division of language. At the Rose bowl, when America was playing Mexico, and those that live in this country who have come here from Mexico booed the United States – there’s a huge problem with that. This is not the first time that this has happened and I think that, that is because in the United States the cultural Marxist ideas of separating people into different racial groups. I love Latino culture but I hate the concept of “la raza.” It is a divisive mindset. I hate that blacks and Hispanics are pitted against each other I really do, call me naive, I grew up in an adopted family where my mom is Christian and Caucasian, my dad is Jewish, my sister is Mexican and I don’t know, I don’t tan so well. I think I’m mostly Irish.

JR: LET ME JUST FINISH WITH SOMETHING MR. BREITBART, DO YOU SEE ANY REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE STRONG ENOUGH TO BEAT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IN THE NEXT ELECTION?

AB: I think that it’s going to be an amazing year. It’s going to be like a reality series like Survivor or American Idol and they’re going to pound each other out and yes I think that the strongest one will win, but let me tell you this, if Marco Rubio, even though he’s only been in the Senate for a very short period of time, that man has a huge, huge opportunity in this country and I think he could be the president, if not in this election cycle, certainly in 2016.

JR: MR.BREITBART THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TALKING WITH US AND I HOPE THIS IS GOING TO BE THE FIRST OF MANY CONVERSATIONS

AB: My pleasure, gracias.

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