Brooks: GOP ‘Prone’ to Be ‘Racial’ on Border, But Their Position Is Helping with Hispanic Voters on Border

During the “PBS NewsHour” coverage of day two of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that Republicans are “prone” to “go with a little racial intonation” while talking about the border but the party’s stance on border security has “helped them with, certainly, Hispanic voters in Texas, in Nevada, in Arizona, a lot of the border-type states.”

While previewing the second night of the convention, Brooks said, “I agree that this is the night to test whether they go a little raw, whether they go with a little racial intonation. And they’ve certainly had, these are the two issues [the border and crime] on which they’re prone to do that. The one point I’d make is that, the Republican Party has been pretty anti-immigrant — or I should say, have been secure the borders for a long time, and, if anything, it’s helped them with, certainly, Hispanic voters in Texas, in Nevada, in Arizona, a lot of the border-type states. And so, it’s not — among different groups, views on the border and the wall are a lot more complicated than just, oh, you can tell what people think by what color their skin is.”

Co-host Amna Nawaz then stated that some GOP rhetoric has been racist, which Brooks agreed with.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett