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Governor Cuomo Blasts Republicans for Racist Tweet Attacking Congressman Adriano Espaillat

He is the American dream, from the Dominican Republic, came here, worked his way up and is now in the Congress of the United States. That's the dream and this division has to stop

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo earlier today said the following in response to a racist tweet from the National Republican Campaign Committee that attacked Congressman Adriano Espaillat, calling him an ‘illegal immigrant’ despite having been a U.S. citizen for decades. Congressman Espaillat also serves as the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

A transcript of his remarks are below:

I also want to mention that the division that the Republican Party has been spreading is destructive and contagious. For them to say that the Congressman Adriano Espaillat, who made the response to the State of the Union, and responded in Spanish, for them to say he is an illegal immigrant, it just shows how far this mentality has gone. Because you speak Spanish, you're now an illegal immigrant. That's what they think – he spoke Spanish, so you must be an illegal immigrant. In truth, Congressman Adriano Espaillat is the exact opposite. He is the American dream, from the Dominican Republic came here, worked his way up and is now in the Congress of the United States. That's the dream and this division has to stop, you know, immigrants, we are all immigrants at the end of the day. And we have to remember that.

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