Trump's plan to suspend immigration to US is 'pure racism': Scaramucci
Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director for President Trump and now vocal opponent, has some choice words for his former boss, who may be looking to temporarily suspend immigration to the U.S. to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
“It’s a racist move and it’s designed to help him with his base,” said the Skybridge Capital founder on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade. “If you go through his internal polling numbers, he is down double-digits in most of the swing states that needs to win. So when he’s saying nonsense like liberate Minnesota or liberate Michigan, he’s trying to rile up his base. His only play right now is to get the people that voted for him last time to turn out in higher levels than in 2016.”
Scaramucci’s pointed comments come after some surprising comments Monday night from the president.
“In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!,” Trump tweeted.
No details have been shared by the White House on when such an executive order would be signed by the president. Any order of this magnitude would significantly amplify the actions by Trump to restrict global travel during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has frequently touted those actions as one of the main reasons the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t spiraled out of control in the U.S.
Most would disagree with that, of course. More than 800,000 Americans have been confirmed with coronavirus so far. A total of 43,000 people have died from the disease.
Scaramucci added, “So the president is cornered, and he is acting like somebody that’s cornered. A lot of the stuff he is doing is irrational, but that’s a racist move. Flat out pure racism designed to ignite his base. It has no benefit to the health of the United States or any curative public health or public safety prevention measure to block immigration at this hour. And I think history will reflect very poorly on that.”
A White House spokesman declined to comment to Yahoo Finance on Scaramucci’s remarks.
“President Trump is committed to protecting the health and economic well-being of American citizens as we face unprecedented times. As President Trump has said, ‘Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers.’ At a time when Americans are looking to get back to work, action is necessary,” said Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary in a statement.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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