A frustrated Leguizamo shed light on how the Biden campaign ignored the Latino voters and treated them as 'an afterthought'
Actor and activist John Leguizamo was quite busy during the campaign season. The 56-year-old Colombian American actor joined the Biden campaign and the famously anti-Trump political action group The Lincoln Project to excite the Democratic Latino voters.
However, his activism did not amount to much. According to a nationwide CNN exit poll, President Trump picked up more Latino voters in several key battleground states in 2020 than he did in his first term.
Trump, who won Florida, captured almost half of the group there, up from 35% in 2016. On the other hand, former Vice President Joe Biden lost support among Latino voters in important states like Ohio and Georgia, reported CNN.
A frustrated Leguizamo explained how Biden campaign failed to mobilize the Latino voters in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“With Latino people, we're always an afterthought. If you don't keep us in mind and put us in the forefront, you're not going to get us. Nobody comes after us. Nobody knocks on our doors. Nobody's talking about our issues. Trump at least knew enough to target them. And that's what he got. He got back what he put in,” the actor said.
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Leguizamo seemed angry that Biden did not even mention his Latino base during the debates. “Trump mentioned the word Latinos. Biden didn't ever want to mention it. I know Biden had a lot of Latin people in his campaign, but he needed to talk about our issues and about us and mention us.”
The actor shockingly claimed that the Trump administration allegedly targeted the Latinos via WhatsApp, warning them about Biden’s 'pedophilia.'
“They would say to Colombians on call-in radio in Miami — because there are about 400,000 registered Colombians to vote and another million Cubans registered — they said, "Do you want Colombia to turn into Venezuela with this president [Biden]? And you know he's a pedophile."
Leguizamo admitted taking solace from the fact that Texas went blue, which was in part due to the Latino vote. He also pointed out the ingrained 'self-hate' among Latin Trump supporters and the constant fearmongering by the Trump campaign as key factors behind Trump's success in mobilizing the Latino vote.
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