Donald Trump is responsible for the
hostile protests that triggered a cancellation to his Chicago rally because the GOP front-runner "appeals to hate," Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado charged in an explosive interview with
Newsmax TV Saturday.
In a panel discussion on "Battleground Florida: Fight for the Primary," Regalado, a Republican, tells hosts J.D. Hayworth and John Bachman that Tuesday's primary vote in the Sunshine State on Tuesday "is a game changer."
Watch
Newsmax TV on
DIRECTV Ch. 349,
DISH Ch. 223 and
Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Get
Newsmax TV on your cable system –
Click Here Now
"We will be able to put [Florida Sen.] Marco Rubio back in the mix," he declared. "After we saw what we saw in Chicago, I think that a lot of people will be disappointed with Donald Trump. Donald Trump appeals to hate and Marco has a language of hope."
In answer to host Hayworth's question if Regalado thought Trump was "responsible for Chicago," Regalado replied without hesitation.
"I am saying exactly that," he declared, saying that for the first time in his public political life, he's been receiving emails from voters "saying, 'You Cubans, you've got to go back to Cuba, it's enough that you have taken over Florida, you should go back.'
"This hate has been generated by Donald Trump," he charged. "I think the conversation should be about the social fiber of the United States… [Trump] has empowered a lot of people saying, 'Well if you don't look like us, you've got to go back.'"
"If Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, I would not vote in the presidential election because I would not be an accomplice of something that will hurt our community here," he vowed.
According to Regalado, "the Republican Party has failed to stop Donald Trump by saying, 'Hey, hey, don't say that Muslims cannot come in this country, hey, hey, don't say that all Latins are drug traffickers.' They didn't do that."
Panel guest Raul Mas, a Cuban community activist, however, argued "the real anger that Donald Trump has tapped into is not racial."
"I think it's an economic uncertainty that so many people are feeling in this country," Mas said. "And yes it has an anti-immigrant element to it because those individuals who lost their jobs, that had a good job are now competing with an immigrant to be a greeter at Wal-Mart and that's not right. That's not the middle class that built America and that's where that frustration is coming from."
"The truth of the matter is we wouldn't be having this discussion if it wasn't for Donald Trump," Mas said. "The Republicans didn't want to talk about illegal immigration, they wanted to avoid it like the plague and guess what, for better or worse, Donald Trump has put it front and center in this presidential election."
Mas said the cancellation of the Chicago Trump rally was caused by "a huge failure on the part of the Chicago Police Department not to have that situation under control."
Host Bachman added the GOP has, in fact, tried to block Trump's campaign surge, but that "it's just not working."
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.