Chris Matthews said he's "not sure" if Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are Hispanic, and suggested incorrectly that the American men are "Cuban nationals."
Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball," questioned the authenticity of the senators' ethnicity in an exchange with Amanda Terkel of The Huffington Post on his show Wednesday night,
Newsbusters reported.
"So you're trying to insinuate that Marco Rubio — a fellow, uh, Spanish surname, I'm not sure the right word is Hispanic for them, because they are Cuban nationals or whatever, or come from Cuba. But, uh, is he going to insinuate that he is still basically for what he calls amnesty?"
Matthews' comment on race was not relevant to the discussion at hand, as the panel was commenting on the sugar subsidies discussed at the Republican debate a day earlier.
His unforced error was a big one, as both Rubio and Cruz are in fact Hispanic, meaning their heritage includes people who come from Spanish-speaking countries.
Rubio's mother and father were born in Cuba, immigrated to the U.S. in the 1950s, and were naturalized in the 1970s. Rubio was born in Miami, Florida.
Cruz's father immigrated from Cuba in the 1950s, and naturalized in the 2000s. His mother, born in Delaware, is of Irish and Italian ancestry. Cruz was born in Canada, but has American citizenship as he was born to parents with American citizenship.
Neither Rubio or Cruz were ever Cuban nationals, nor did they come from Cuba.
"Matthews knows better; he’s just trying to insinuate that Rubio and Cruz aren’t authentically Hispanic because they’re Republican, not because they have Cuban ancestry,"
commented HotAir.com.
A number of people spoke out on Twitter, condemning Matthews' comments.
"Why is racist @hardball_chris still employed?"
tweeted one man.
"I find it interesting that these news people can be such idiots. I mean, idiots,"
said another.
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