Perry on Trump: 'You Have to Be Critical of His Disrespectful Language'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IwDOuoT4tc

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, challenged last night by Sean Hannity, stood by his assessment that Donald Trump was painting “with such a broad brush” to “make this rhetoric be disrespectful” on illegal immigrants.

Trump’s comments during his presidential announcement: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us (sic). They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards, and they tell us what we’re getting.”

“I think you have to be critical of his disrespectful language that he used. We want to talk about how to bring this country together and the solutions that we have in this country, I’ll be more than happy to have that conversation,” Perry said on Fox. “But to paint with the broad brush that Mr. Trump did and basically say that all Mexicans were rapists and killers is — you know, that’s just — that is the type of inflammatory language that doesn’t do anything at all.”

Perry argued that “nobody knows better” what is happening at the border “than I do.”

“For 14 years, I was the governor of a state with a 1,200-mile border with Mexico. I understand exactly what’s going on,” he said. “And all the people of the state of Texas, whether they’re Anglo or African-American or Hispanic, want to see that border secure. And that’s what this conversation needs to stay focused on, not making, you know, rhetoric that is hyperbolic. He knew exactly what he was doing with those statements.”

“…I hope who Donald Trump’s really mad at is Washington, D.C., for their failure to secure that border.”

Perry added “there is no will in Washington, D.C., to do their constitutional duty.”

“I mean, we have been screaming at the top of our lungs in this state for a long time about Washington not doing their constitutional duty to secure that border. And we know how to do it… The problem is, that’s not the state’s responsibility. That’s the federal government’s responsibility.”