Political Commentator Dishes on Trump at Neighbors Link Function
Don’t expect Ana Navarro to sit quietly on the sidelines now that the election is over and Donald Trump will be sworn in as the nation’s 45th president in two months.
The longtime Republican, television political commentator and unabashed Trump critic hasn’t found too many complimentary words for the president-elect, as some members of her party have since his victory.
Last Friday in Purchase, at a fundraising luncheon for Neighbors Link, the Mount Kisco organization that helps integrate immigrants into the local community, Navarro urged its supporters to turn their disappointment and concerns about what lies ahead for the next four years into meaningful action. That means getting involved in the political process, including contacting congressional representatives, writing letters to the editor, supporting organizations such as Neighbors Link and protesting, if necessary, she said.
“That to me is the only choice we have as Americans,” said Navarro, a frequent panelist on CNN and other networks’ news programs. “Americans are resilient, they get up, they fight back.”
Navarro said she is guardedly optimistic that once Trump takes office he will want to be a successful president, which means addressing many of the concerns of minority communities and reassuring them that citizens of all faiths and backgrounds are welcome.
However, the first round of cabinet and advisor appointments have once again given her pause. If Trump and his administration try to put into practice the politics of division that was part of much of the hurtful campaign rhetoric, he will face continued backlash from large segments of the public, including some members of the GOP, Navarro warned.
“There are opportunities to come, and if he reverts back to being the swamp thing, (House Speaker) Paul Ryan is going to stand up, and John McCain is going to stand up and there are going to be Republicans and Democrats that rise, there’ll be voices in the community that stand up,” Navarro said. “These protests will not end if he goes back down this path.”
Speaking to a welcoming crowd, Navarro told her story of immigrating to the United States with her siblings and mother from Nicaragua, a country with a long history of dictators, settling in Miami and becoming a Republican. Navarro’s father remained behind, fighting for the rebel Contras after the left-wing Sandinistas took power in 1979.
Navarro arrived during the 1980 presidential campaign, in which Ronald Reagan took a hard line against communism at a time when the Cold War was still raging. There were also plenty of Hispanic community members in South Florida that backed Republicans, including one of her local political heroes, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who would become the first Latino woman elected to the House of Representatives in 1989. Ros-Lehtinen is another Republican who strongly denounced Trump during the campaign.
“That kind of sealed the deal for me,” Navarro recalled. “I consider myself a Ronald Reagan Republican, I consider myself a George Herbert Walker Bush Republican, a George W. Bush Republican, an extinct species Republican.”
Navarro said she started opposing Trump at the kick off to his presidential campaign in June 2015, the day of his infamous comments about Mexicans. The avalanche of insults, not only against Hispanics but against many other groups, plus the Access Hollywood tapes would have disqualified virtually any other candidate. But it was overlooked because they became normalized and it was in a year where the electorate sought change.
“I’m not Mexican but I knew he was referring to people who looked like me and sounded like me and had come from south of the border like me,” Navarro said.
Neighbors Link Executive Director Carola Bracco welcomed Navarro to the luncheon, saying that the past couple of weeks have been difficult ones for the organization, but there must be a commitment among its supporters and like-minded organizations to stick together.
“The climate in our country now concerning immigrant rights is clearly slipping backwards fast,” she said. “For Neighbors Link, the election result was not about partisan politics. It’s about creating a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are supporting our economy, adding to our culture and eager to participate fully in our communities.”
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/