A Latino Republican who immigrated to the United States from Cuba slammed President Joe Biden for trying to use woke terms to identify the Latino community, saying Biden’s remarks were an insult to Latino culture.
Biden said last week that it was “awful hard” to “get latinx vaccinated as well” because “they’re worried that they’ll be vaccinated and deported.” Biden’s comments were widely condemned as being racist because the implication of his remarks was that Latinos were in the U.S. illegally.
When asked during a Fox News interview if that was a problem with getting the Latino population vaccinated, Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) responded, “No, I don’t think so.”
“Look, in Miami Dade County, we don’t ask, we don’t ask your immigrant status,” Gimenez continued. “I mean, you can get vaccinated, we want everybody to be vaccinated, and that’s not going to be the issue. So there are people that, unfortunately do not want to get vaccinated either because they’re fearful, or they just don’t want to be vaccinated. And so we need to, we need to push the vaccinations as much as possible, we need to get as many Americans vaccinated as possible. Once we can do that, that will go back to the on the old normal, which is really what we all want, the old normal, but by the same token, once everybody has had the opportunity to be vaccinated, we need to get back to the old normal anyway. Because it’s their right not to be vaccinated. It’s also our right, the people that have been vaccinated, to go back to living our life in as normal fashion, as you know, pre COVID-19 fashion as possible. We need to do that as quickly as possible.”
Later, when asked about Biden’s widely panned racist remarks and his use of the term “latinx,” Gimenez said that he didn’t know what to make of the term when he heard Biden make it.
“Look, I’m Hispanic, I’m a legal immigrant,” he added. “I’m a citizen of the United States. I’m a U.S. Congressman. And so, no, we are just like everybody else. We came here looking for a better life, my father, my mother brought me here looking for a better life, escaping socialism and communism in Cuba. And we’re really proud to be Americans, and so that somehow we’re different than anybody else, and that we’re afraid we’re going to be deported, no, that’s not the case.”
“And so, you know, I think the president really is out of touch with what’s really happening on the ground,” he continued. “And so, you know, again, I urge everybody to be vaccinated. But again, that’s our American rights to do as we want. I don’t know of anybody that can’t get vaccinated. And so once that happens, then we should just open up and go back to business.”
Gimenez later posted a tweet containing video of the interview and he took a more direct attack in responding to Biden’s “latinx” remarks, which many Latinos find to be offensive.
“Never mind the racist undertones in implying all Latinos are undocumented, using the term ‘Latinx’ is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Gimenez wrote. “It’s insulting to our culture to try and restructure an entire language to fit your politics. Keep your wokeness out of our language.”
WATCH:
Never mind the racist undertones in implying all Latinos are undocumented, using the term “Latinx” is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
It’s insulting to our culture to try and restructure an entire language to fit your politics. Keep your wokeness out of our language. pic.twitter.com/xw0edPMp0A
— Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) June 27, 2021