ABC News(NEW YORK) — Hispanic Democrats are seizing on Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s description of Donald Trump’s immigration comments as “that Mexican thing” in Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate to bash the Republican ticket.
“When Donald Trump says women should be punished or Mexicans are rapists and criminals … he is showing you who he is,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, said in the debate.
“Senator, you’ve whipped out that Mexican thing again,” Pence quickly replied.
Kaine honed in on Trump’s remarks throughout the vice-presidential debate, calling on Pence to defend his running mate’s comments.
“You want to use a big broad brush against Mexicans on that?” he asked.
“He also said ‘and many of them are good people,’” Pence replied, before turning to abortion. “You keep leaving that out of your quote.”
“The Latino community is not forgetting ‘that Mexican thing,’” said Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Pence’s aside went viral on Twitter during the debate, and users adopted the hashtag to share personal stories about the Mexican-American experience.
#ThatMexicanThing These are my Hispanic grandparents American citizens that pd their taxes, grandfather served in WWII. @GovPenceIN pic.twitter.com/ie9u3ngG7M
— Just Ann American (@masg66) October 5, 2016
#ThatMexicanThing being proud of my heritage, becoming a citizen, & showing up to vote against hate this November #ImWithHer
— Maria ML (@CoffeandTequila) October 5, 2016
Late Tuesday night, the domain ThatMexicanThing.com began redirecting visitors to Hillary Clinton’s campaign website.
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