Poor Jeffrey Lord. He really dislikes immigrants and he really likes Donald Trump fancy new nativist tone Immigration Ban, the Raise Act, which targets legal immigration by setting up a point system and requirements for admission - English speaking, skills sets, etc.
Ana Navarro gave Lord a stern history lesson on American immigration and pointed out that the biggest race-baiter around is President* Trump.
COOPER: I'm back now with the panel. Jeffrey, I just want you to be able to respond to Ana who said that this is un-American, that there are plenty of people who come to this country not speaking English.
LORD: I totally disagree. One of the things and I want to address as well to my friend, Charles, here, on what is assimilation.
My mother is Irish on her side of the family. So, you know, what, on St. Patrick's Day, I have corn beef and cabbage and maybe a green beer. Trust me, I'm not Irish. I'm an American. That's the point. There is no one in America who's an American citizen. Donald Trump --
COOPER: Right, but the Irish came here, they weren't viewed as American. In fact, the racism against Irish people was overwhelming.
LORD: Right. I understand which is why we have to move past this and not do a thing where we're in essence resegregating the country. That's a bad thing.
COOPER: Ana, is this resegregation?
NAVARRO: No, Jeff -- No, you know, Jeff, it must be so nice to be a white male.
LORD: What does that have to do with, Ana?
NAVARRO: -- in America and be able to -- I think you just completely missed the point of what makes us wonderful here in America is that I can go celebrate St. Patrick's Day and that you can celebrate Cinco De Mayo.
LORD: Yes.
NAVARRO: Or you can celebrate the 15th of September. And that does not define being American.
LORD: Agree.
NAVARRO: Go to the Vietnam wall. Go to any of the memorials. Go to Arlington and take a look at all of the Polish, Italians, Hispanic names --
LORD: Correct.
NAVARRO: -- that you will see on those. They bled and they died.
LORD: Right.
NAVARRO: For this country. But many of them are the children or they, themselves, came here without speaking English and became American. So there is no such -- you know what's beautiful about America? That there is not one single label of Americanism. America means loving your country. America means sacrificing for your country. America means putting your country first. It does not mean what language you came here speaking. It does not mean what holiday you celebrate. It means patriotism, love of country, and shared values. It has nothing to do with culture.
LORD: Right. Well, I more or less 100 percent agree with everything you just said. I'm not disagreeing with that. My concern is, is that we have, with all this business of identifying communities, you know, this community, that community, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, with all the emphasis on that that it keeps people from assimilating into the larger American culture.
NAVARRO: Nobody does more -- nobody does more identity politics than Donald Trump. The guy who came down, announced he was running for president and called Mexicans rapists. Nobody does more identity politics than guy who called for the Muslim ban. Nobody does more identity politics than the guy who tweets out against transgenders. So if you want there to be no identity politics --
LORD: I do.
NAVARRO: -- my request to you is to start by telling the president you support regardless of what he does to stop doing it, himself.
Poor Jeffrey.
