During a radio interview Wednesday, former President Barack Obama set his sights on Latino evangelical Christians, many of whom cast their ballots for outgoing President Donald Trump, arguing they set aside his “racist” policies because they don’t support gay marriage or abortion.
“There’s a lot of evangelical Hispanics who — the fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans, or puts undocumented workers in cages — they think that’s less important than the fact that he supports their views on gay marriage or abortion,” Obama said on “The Breakfast Club” podcast.
Trump performed very well with Hispanic voters on Election Day, particularly in Texas and Florida, where nearly half of Latino voters cast their ballots for the incumbent president.
Several have suggested a driver of the pro-Trump vote among the Latino community is the result of the left’s comfortability with and — in some cases — embrace of socialism. For example, the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told CBN News on Election Night that Hispanic voters are “America’s firewall against socialism.”
By all the metrics available, it’s inaccurate for Obama to suggest opposition to abortion and gay marriage were the sole reasons Hispanic voters pulled the lever for Trump.
As The Federalist reported, same-sex matters were not listed in the top 10 important issues for Americans writ large going into Election Day. Furthermore, it was not a top-10 priority for Hispanic voters specifically, either. Rather, Hispanic voters were largely concerned — like most Americans — with the economy, health care, and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s also worth noting Trump has not spent much time at all discussing LGBT issues, nor has he expressed opposition at all to gay marriage. In fact, Trump is the first president to have entered office already supporting same-sex marriage rights. Additionally, Trump made history as the first commander-in-chief to appoint an openly gay person to serve as director of national intelligence. His campaign also held LGBT events.
And regarding immigration, Obama’s administration was responsible for the chain-link “cages” used to temporarily house illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.