“Trump’s rhetoric about Latinos is darker than a 12-hour chocolate mole. But does that matter to these voters?”
Donald Trump‘s popularity with Latino voters has been called into question following racist remarks comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made at his Madison Square Garden rally — so John Leguizamo decided to investigate the matter.
The Chef star went undercover with The Daily Show to talk with six undecided “Trump-curious” Latino voters who are considering casting a vote for the convicted felon. “Trump’s rhetoric about Latinos is darker than a 12-hour chocolate mole. But does that matter to these voters?” Leguizamo asked via voiceover.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty; Jeff J Mitchell/Getty
John Leguizamo; Donald Trump
While wearing an elaborate disguise, Leguizamo asked the group what they like about Trump. “He’s not evasive,” one voter said. “It’s pretty clear, I mean, this is someone that’s been at the forefront for a very long time speaking his mind.”
Another participant noted, “When he was in the government, the economy was better than we have it right now. That’s the only part that I like.”
The actor tried to measure which issues mattered the most to the group, so he gave them each three chili pepper cutouts to hold up to signify their values. Every member of the group gave the economy three out of three chilis, whereas only a couple of them indicated that they strongly care about health care.
Leguizamo also asked if any Latino celebrity endorsements could sway their votes. The group members shook their heads as he held up photos of Eva Longoria and Pitbull, then said they didn’t care about Bad Bunny‘s Kamala Harris endorsement, either. The actor then made things personal without revealing his identity: “John Legweeze-me-o?” he asked the group. One of the panelists corrected his pronunciation, but nobody indicated that they cared about his endorsement. “Well f— you too, then!” he responded in voiceover.
John Lamparski/Getty
John Leguizamo
The Leguizamo Does America host went on to play recordings of rallies and interviews where Trump made disparaging remarks about immigrants, including one where The Apprentice star said he’d “begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” One voter said that the plan sounded like an “excellent way to fix a very, very severe problem.”
Another interviewee explained, “If he’s saying immigration is a problem, it’s like you have a leak in your house. You’ve gotta turn it off, the water supply, fix it, then turn it on. Maybe that’s what he’s trying to do, like, let’s close down the border for a while.”
Leguizamo jumped in, “But who would you call to fix your leak if all the Latinos are gone?”
The voters then watched a clip wherein Trump said that many immigrants are “terrorists” from “mental institutions” who are “poisoning the blood of our country,” and another where he said that the proclivity to murder is “in their genes, and we got a lot of bad genes in our country.”
“I think maybe there’s better words that can be used,” one voter admitted. “We all misspeak sometimes.”
Leguizamo concurred with the second part of that statement: “He misspeaks from the heart.”
Another voter had harsher words. “This is stereotyping Latinos, it’s stereotyping immigrants, and the more that you demonize people, it doesn’t bring us together.”
In response, Leguizamo joked, “You, sir, you definitely don’t have the murder gene.”
Related: Dave Bautista calls Donald Trump a ‘whiny little bitch,’ blasts his ‘tough guy’ persona
One of the other panelists said that he didn’t like hearing Trump speak about these issues. “With your questions and the questions that I’m listening to are about ‘As you see this, what do you think?’ I’d rather not see that,” he said, gesturing to the screen showing the clips.
“So it’s better if we don’t show these clips of him because they make you not wanna vote for him?” Leguizamo asked.
“That’s exactly why many who will tell you that they don’t like them, is because of what he says,” the same voter confirmed.
Leguizamo thought he might be making some progress for Harris’ cause with the group, so he took off his disguise, revealed himself to the voters, and asked, “Now that I’ve shown you all these awful things about Trump, does that change your vote?” But all of the respondents shook their heads, confirming that their minds remain unchanged when it comes to the 45th president.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Watch the full clip from The Daily Show above.
Leave a Comment