Hispanic lawmakers were angered Wednesday after an NBC executive flubbed an attempt at damage control by describing undocumented immigrants as “illegals,” and speaking Spanish.
NBC News President Deborah Turness, along withtop executives from MSNBC and NBC, joined Hispanic lawmakers Wednesday to smooth things over after Donald Trump’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” Politico.com reported. But instead of helping the situation, Turness made a gaffe that had the lawmakers irate. PHOTOS: Protester’s deliver petitions to ‘Dump Trump’ from SNL The tension kicked off when Turness described an interaction between Pope Francis and a young girl who was concern her parents would be deported because they’re “illegals.”
“I’m going to stop you right there. We use the term undocumented immigrants,” interjected Rep. Juan Vargas, a Democrat from California.
Turness reportedly apologized, Politico reported, but when explaining why the network welcomed Trump, a controversial figure in the immigration debate, onto SNL, Turness only made things worse.
“We love the Hispanic community. Yo hablo español,” she reportedly said, offending lawmakers present.
“There was a lot of frustration in the room,” said DemocratTony Cárdenas, according to Politico. “You know that (Trump is) an issue on all of our minds and as soon as you start talking about it, you say none of the executives for the entertainment (division) are here. It was a cop out. It was disingenuous.” For more details go to the Politico story here.
‘Yo hablo español:’ NBC exec’s remarks outrage Hispanic lawmakers
