Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg Try to Dazzle Jorge Ramos with Spanish

Former congressman Beto O’Rourke and Mayor Pete Buttigieg spoke about immigration and racism in Spanish during the ABC Debate on Thursday.

Both candidates deployed their Spanish skills in response to questions from ABC News debate moderator Jorge Ramos.

Ramos asked Buttigieg if he believed that Trump supporters were “racist” by supporting the president’s agenda.

“Anyone who supports this is supporting racism,” Buttigieg responded, repeating the same slogan in Spanish translated as, “This is racism and it’s simple.”

Later, Ramos asked Beto O’Rourke a question about visa overstays.

O’Rourke replied by proposing that the United States fully harmonize visa overstays into the entry-exit systems with Mexico and Canada.

He then launched into speech in Spanish, translated to “We know that if we need to secure our cities and our country, we have to treat people with dignity.”

Julian Castro spoke Spanish as he introduced himself at the beginning of the debate.

Ramos also spoke in Spanish as the debate began, reminding Spanish speakers in America that “this is our country too.”

“This debate is taking place at very difficult moment for Latinos in Texas and all over the country. That’s why it’s important they know that we know that this is also our country,” Ramos said.