Roberto Rodriguez
First he came after the Mexicans, and you did not speak out.
Then he came after the Muslims, and you did not speak out.
Then he came for the blacks, and you still did not speak out.
Who can forget that when the president launched his campaign in 2016 he called Mexicans rapists and criminals? And who can forget that his calls for a wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border, with Mexico paying for it, would be what would galvanize his base, especially at his campaign rallies where such chants would come to dominate his events that resembled more like pogroms than rallies?
I remember thinking at the time that if this flamboyant presidential contender had said similar things about any other group in the country, his campaign would have been doomed from the start. There was no huge outcry by this nation’s body politic, and instead, the mainstream media flocked to him for “exclusive” interviews or special guest appearances for this new celebrity candidate.
By the time he staged a campaign rally at the Tucson Convention Center in March of 2016, there was no ambiguity about his politics. As such, there was a huge protest. I was present, and as I filmed the standoff between his supporters and the counter-protesters, I found myself near the entrance. Out of the blue, a Secret Service agent demanded to know if I was going inside or staying outside? I ended up inside. And what I saw and filmed in there radically changed how I saw his campaign.
What I learned there was more about his supporters than about him. To put it mildly, it was white racial supremacists unleashed; an orgy of extreme hate.