Looks Like The Kochs Are Giving Up On Latino Outreach

Hard to not see this one coming.

Going into the Koch brothers’ “Defending American Dream Summit” last weekend, we pointed out Charles and David’s immigration conundrum — here they were, hosting all kinds of anti-immigrant, anti-birthright citizenship GOP presidential candidates, while simultaneously professing to care about the Latino community.

But Charles and David’s LIBRE Initiative is nothing more than a sham outreach front group and propaganda machine, so we predicted Charles and David would stay silent while their invited guests rolled out the inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric.

And, to risk sounding self-congratulatory: We were right.

Here’s how Bloomberg Politics reported on the event’s immigration dialogue:

When it was time to file into the bleachers to see presidential candidates speak, talk of outreach faded away. The crowd went wild for Texas Senator Ted Cruz, whose plan for guarding the Mexican frontier includes 90,000 repurposed IRS employees, and for Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor, who promised to build a wall on the nation’s southern border within six months. “Immigration without assimilation is invasion!” proclaimed Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants.
…
Donald Trump, who’s dominated media coverage of the presidential race and made a crackdown on “the illegals” the centerpiece of his campaign, was never far from people’s minds in Columbus. Praise for Trump, who wasn’t invited to speak, was virtually unanimous, even from those who said they were backing other candidates. “He’s like the last little bit of salt you put in the stew to bring out the flavor,” said Rita Singer, a retired fabric store saleswoman from Moncks Corner, S.C. “He says what everyone else is thinking.”

Yeah.

Even when LIBRE’s eminent leader, Daniel Garza, participated in a panel, only in the meekest of terms did he address the divisive rhetoric of the anti-immigrant elephants in the room. Bloomberg Politics reported that, “When someone asked if Trump is threatening conservatives’ chances with Latinos, Garza said conservatives need to be respectful and appreciate the crucial role that immigrants play in the U.S. economy. He called Trump’s proposal to deny citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants ‘not realistic.'”

Well, looks like the Kochs have completely given up on Latino outreach sham. Probably a good decision — hard to spin this one.