During an interview with the new Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump (daughter-in-law of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump), Fox News star Maria Bartiromo complained about the number of migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border under the Biden administration.
[Related: RNC Admits Lara Trump Not Qualified To Co-Chair But “Called by God”]
Bartiromo said her friend told her that she was standing at a food truck when “two gentlemen approached her, one had tattoos all over his face, they looked like illegals, she said, and one had a clipboard and said, ‘hello, miss, do you want to sign up to become a Democrat and vote?’” Bartiromo suggested that Democrats are hiring extremely polite, fluent English-speaking migrants.
Bartiromo: I had a friend the other day tell me she was standing at a food truck, two gentlemen approached her. One had tattoos all over his face. They looked like illegals, she said, and one had a clipboard and said to her, hello, do you want to sign up to be a Democrat pic.twitter.com/0b8m9Ii9UM
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 10, 2024
Bartiromo’s phrase “they looked like illegals” is being criticized on social media as racist (“how does someone look illegal?”); fictional (“file this under ‘things that never happened’”); and ironic as her feed is being flooded with photos of January 6 rioters and MAGA supporters with face tattoos including rapper Lil Pump who recently added a tattoo of Donald Trump to his leg (video below).
Fit on point pic.twitter.com/0mBCY6jFvg
— Lil pump (@lilpump) February 29, 2024
The Bartiromo criticism focused on stereotyping what an “illegal” may look like, not about the language she chose, which is itself provocative on the Democratic side where the preferred term is “undocumented.” President Biden used the term “illegal” in his State of the Union address, in response to a Marjorie Taylor Greene provocation, and was chastised for it afterwards.