The executive director of the Koch-backed LIBRE Initiative Dan Garza has officially drank the Party of Trump Kool-Aid. In an interview with Telemundo (translated by American Bridge), Garza told Jose Diaz-Balart he was confident the anti-immigration demagogue could consolidate the Republican party:
I think Donald Trump has exceeded all expectations. He has beaten sixteen other candidates. At the same time, he has proved to be a master at handling the media. So, for me, I think that it’ll be a bit difficult, but he will be able to consolidate the party and unite the different factions to advance his candidacy and achieve what I think will be a victory. It is very possible, very probable that he will do so.
This is the latest sign that LIBRE is cozying up to a Trump candidacy. Garza had said that the front group would focus on Senate races rather than helping the presumptive GOP nominee win over the Latino community. Now, Garza is following his fellow LIBRE spokesperson Rachel Campos-Duffy’s lead by offering tips to the man who indiscriminately called Mexicans “rapists” on how to win the Hispanic vote.
Campos-Duffy went on Fox Business to encourage Trump to shift his focus from extreme immigration measures like promising to deport millions and build a wall along the Mexican border to school choice and small businesses:
School choice is an issue that really resonates. Latina moms want opportunity, they want upward mobility for their kids, and they know that the school and education is the way to it… We’re nonpartisan Stuart, and we are fighting for entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, and of course upward mobility through economic liberty for Hispanics. So these are all issues that I think – you know, his tax plan, his support for small businesses – could be beneficial.
The Kochs themselves may not have officially endorsed Donald Trump, but their cronies and front groups have quickly fallen in line with the GOP talking points. LIBRE has never had the best interests of the Hispanic voters in mind and the latest shift by Garza and Campos-Duffy to supporting Trump makes that clearer than ever.