Complete clown...

Critics ream Trump immigration address

The head of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce calls Trump a 'complete clown.'

By Nick Gass

Donald Trump's immigration speech Wednesday night in Arizona served up red meat to his staunchest allies and supporters but left those on the fence about supporting him even more wary and those fiercely opposed to him even more confident in their criticism.

Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's running mate, rebuked Trump Thursday morning for sending seemingly mixed signals with his speech.

"The important thing about leadership is you got to be consistent. You can't say different things to different audiences," Kaine said on NBC's Today. "And so, you know, he came back across the border and then it was all about Mexico is going to build a wall. Mexico is going to pay for it. He was divisive. He basically says America is going to be deportation nation. But when he's looking the leader of Mexico in the eye, he can't bring himself to say it."

"I think this is kind of a diplomatic amateur hour by Donald Trump," Kaine said.

Declaring Trump's Phoenix address his "darkest" to date, Clinton's national Latino vote director lambasted the Republican nominee for having "doubled down on his anti-immigrant rhetoric and attempted to divide communities by pitting people against each other and demonizing immigrants."

"Trump committed to sending a new 'Deportation Task Force' into American communities, rescinding the President's executive actions to protect DREAMers and their families, building a wall that he continues to claim will be paid for by Mexico, and made clear that 'Operation Wetback' was not severe enough," said Lorella Praeli in a statement, referring to the 1950s immigration action fighting border crossings. "The only immigrants allowed in the future are those that pass Donald Trump's own test of 'desirability.'"

Praeli added that Trump "once again showed us that he will continue his decades-long record of divisiveness and campaign of hate by pledging to forcibly remove every single undocumented immigrant from our country."

"He showed us, very clearly, what's at stake in this election by painting a picture of his idea of America: one in which immigrants are not welcomed and one in which innocent families are torn apart," Praeli added.

The head of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce lamented the lost opportunity of the Republican Party in 2016 with Trump as its nominee.

Javier Palomarez, whose group made its first-ever presidential endorsement in July, backing Hillary Clinton, remarked Thursday that Trump was in a bind after his meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

"He had to come back out and really kind of fire up his base. But the reality of it is, he hasn't done anything to help himself in terms of growing the number," Palomarez said during a discussion on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"And so I think he's done for with the Hispanic community. He's never going to see the White House if he doesn't get a significant portion of the Hispanic vote," he continued. "I don't know if you guys speak Spanish but I want you to remember this one word: payaso. Payaso."

Explaining that it translates to "clown," Palomarez called Trump a "complete clown."

"I'm really sad for the American people and for the Republican Party. They had an opportunity to put John Kasich, you know, front and center," Palomarez said, referring to the Ohio governor who was the last Republican challenger to drop out against Trump. "Instead, they ended up with this payaso. You know, it's a complete waste of time. It is a complete waste of time. We need to get on with it already. The nation has got other things to worry about. Immigration reform is a monster that he created so he could slay it at the end of the day. It's not going to change things for this nation as we move forward here. We have to deal with a broken immigration system, obviously. But it’s got to be done in a strategic fashion that makes sense on a going forward basis to fire up people and get this kind of hate-filled, you know, this movement of hatred. It doesn't solve anything."

Asked whether there is anything Trump could say to change what he has said and done over the course of the last 14 months, Palomarez was adamant there was not.

"And after last night, that was an extra nail in the coffin. He's done for," Palomarez said, praising the work of "compassionate conservatives" like Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, Texas Sen. John Cornyn and others who were trying to make the GOP tent bigger.

Palomarez added, "Donald Trump has laid all of that, he has laid it to waste. And there is no going back."

"That is so sad," co-host Mika Brzezinski remarked.

"It is," Palomarez responded. "It is."

Decrying Trump's "scapegoating" as nothing new from a historical perspective, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) called it a "blood-curdling" address, showing him to be as "irresponsible and bigoted as ever."

"It's bigoted because you're blaming a group of people for larger crimes," Nadler told CNN's "New Day." "It's exactly the same thing as the fascists did in Europe: The problems are all because of the Jews. Here, the problems are all because of the Mexicans. The problems are all because of the Irish in the 1850s …in anti-immigration hysteria in the 1840s and '50s, the Know-Nothings, it was oh the country's being destroyed by the Irish immigrants. It's the same thing. You blame all the problems on a group of people who are not responsible for those problems. Yes, there are people who commit crimes who are here illegally. But most crimes are committed by people who are here."

Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson laced into Trump's speech, mocking in particular his call to triple the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The former governor of New Mexico asked, "what are they going to do? Go door-to-door in New Mexico? America won’t stand for that.

"Adding specifics and detail to an anti-immigrant policy does not change that policy or make it any less offensive," Johnson said in a statement, in which he declared that “Americans, and particularly Latinos, deserve better" than Trump's speech.