Speaking to reporters at the Iowa State Fair, former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary and current Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro defended his brother, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), after Joaquin publicly revealed the names of 44 people in San Antonio who donated to President Trump and created a public furor.
Joaquin Castro not only revealed the names of the donors; he linked them to racist hatred, tweeting, “Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump — the owner of [redacted], owner of the [redacted], realtor [redacted], etc. Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders.'”
A reporter asked Julian Castro, “Some of these Trump donors are being targeted and harassed. Republican or Democrat, why is that okay?”
Castro replied, “It is not okay for anybody to harass anybody else. It doesn’t matter where somebody’s coming from, from the Right or from the Left. It’s not okay for people to harass other people and nobody ever said that it was.”
The reporter persisted, “So then why post the list online?” Another reporter echoed, “Is it an act of intimidation?”
Castro answered, “My brother put out a list of names of people who had maxed out to the Trump campaign. That is public information. That information is put out all the time, and for anybody to pretend or suggest that it’s not, that’s just untrue.”
The first reporter queried, “Didn’t he single them out?”
Castro, dodging the questions of whether his brother was attempting to intimidate Trump supporters as well as the question as to the motives for his brother’s actions, pontificated, “Let me also be clear: He did not put down anybody’s private information; he did not put down their addresses; he did not put down their phone numbers.”
A reporter pushed, “But he singled them out, Mr. Secretary.”
Castro continued his deflection: “What he did is not doxxing; anybody who understands what doxxing is knows that that’s what — he did not do that, all right? What he did was he put forward publicly available information that was already out there. “
Then Castro ignored the fact that some of the donors were furious at the attempt to intimidate them; he turned to attacking President Trump: “The right wing wants to make this a story because they want to pretend, like in some way that’s equivalent to the hate and division that Donald Trump is fostering in this country. It is not. I guess, what Donald Trump wants, is that he wants these donors to be secret. He doesn’t want you to know that they’re donating to him.”
A reporter pointed out, “Do you know that they’re donating to you too?”
Castro repeated, “He doesn’t want you to know that they’re donating to him because that’s inconvenient for him. Maybe he believes that these people are embarrassed that they’re donating to him.”
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