Border Summit speaker ditches NAFTA topic for attack on Trump
On Wednesday El Paso hosted the U.S./Mexico Border Summit, with keynote speaker Ana Navarro, the political strategist and CNN commentator.
She was expected to speak about NAFTA and trade between the U.S. and Mexico, but that changed. The outspoken Navarro said she felt compelled to speak about the events of the past few days that have divided the country, instead of NAFTA and trade, stopping to take several shots at President Donald Trump along the way.
“You’re going to get me speaking from the heart today,” Navarro said as she started her speech at the El Paso Convention Center.
When she wasn’t complimenting El Paso: “I spend a lot of time in New York and Washington. You guys are so nice … I feel like I’m in familia and I just got here. Hell, I might come seek exile here.”
She was taking aim at President Trump: “I don’t like Donald Trump. I never liked Donald Trump … Lying daily is not presidential … Donald Trump is deplorable and Donald Trump is racist and Donald Trump is a bigot and is dividing America and we cannot stand for it.”
She spoke out about the president’s comments on Charlottsville: “Not standing up to injustice and spewing out dog whistles to racists is not presidential and we cannot accept it as that.”
Navarro had this to say about the border wall: “I have yet to meet a Mexican who says they want to pay for the wall. But there are a lot of Mexicans I meet who would like to build a wall around the white house.”
Afterward, the El Paso County Attorney said she enjoyed the speech.
“She expressed a lot of the sentiments that I have been feeling,” Bernal said, “a little bit of despair about the state of the racial tensions in this country.”
City Rep. Peter Svarzbein had this to say about Navarro’s: “She’s expressing something that is on her mind and is on the mind of a lot of Americans right now.”
Afterward, ABC-7 asked Navarro why this speech in El Paso?
“I think El Paso is ground zero for so many of these political fights and this rhetoric that’s going on in Washington, whether it’s the anti-immigrant sentiment, the wall with Mexico, the trade agreements,” Navarro said. “You guys are ground zero for everything. More people need to come to El Paso to see just how well things work here.”
Navarro went on to say she considers what’s happened the past seven months under Trump blows to American values. She said she just felt like it was a day for reflection and what’s happening in America today. She added she’s never been to El Paso, but promised to return.
