By Rabia Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - Former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday sparked controversy after suggesting that illegal immigrants are bringing "bad genes" into the US.
While criticizing his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump reiterated a recent campaign claim that 13,000 immigrants with homicide convictions have illegally entered the country.
“How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person? They are now happily living in the United States,” Trump said during a radio interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“You know now, a murderer — I believe this — it’s in their genes. We’ve got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. They had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn’t be here that are criminals,” he added.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized Trump's remarks during a press briefing on Monday, calling them "hateful" and "disgusting."
"That type of language is hateful, it's disgusting, it's inappropriate, and has no place in our country," Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre connected Trump's remarks to past inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants. "This comes from the same vile statements we've heard before—about migrants being poisoned, poison to the blood. That's disgusting," she said.
"This President and Vice President will continue to forcefully reject this kind of vile, disturbing, hateful speech. It has no place in this country. We need to respect the rights of all of us coming together, not tearing communities apart," Jean-Pierre added.