Republicans in immigrant-rich Fla. scramble in wake of Trump's remarks

By Sean Sullivan and Lori Rozsa January 12 at 8:12 PM

West Palm Beach, Fla. — President Trump’s vulgar comments disparaging Haiti, El Salvador and African countries reverberated across the country Friday — including in one immigrant-rich state central to the GOP’s political fortunes where the party was already facing head winds: Florida.

Trump’s reference to “shithole countries” in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers Thursday sent Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a close ally the president is courting to run for the U.S. Senate, scrambling to distance himself from the controversy. Republican lawmakers issued strongly worded statements condemning what the leader of their party said. And GOP strategists and activists worried about the fallout in a battleground that is home to one of the country’s largest populations of Latin Americans.

Trump’s presidential victory hinged heavily on his surprise win in Florida, which Republicans are trying to build on in this year’s midterm elections. But the drag of Trump’s polarizing actions and words can be felt acutely in some quarters of this state, where marquee elections for a Senate seat and the governorship will play out this year, and which is expected to be as pivotal in the 2020 presidential contest as it was in 2016.

“It’s not helping,” Michael Barnett, vice chairman of the Florida Republican Party, said of Trump’s remarks. Barnett, an African American attorney in Palm Beach County who is close to the Haitian community there, added, “As far as making our job harder, we’ve been through a lot already with him.”

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