A leading Hispanic rights advocate called on NBC Tuesday to rethink its decision to have Donald Trump host “Saturday Night Live” next month, warning that it will be a “corporate blunder.”
Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat, joined a growing list of elected leaders and immigrant rights activists that want NBC to dump Mr. Trump from his scheduled Nov. 7 appearance on SNL.
“I think I speak for a lot of Americans, especially immigrant Americans and Latino Americans, when I say that if SNL is allowed to proceed, it would be a huge corporate blunder,” Mr. Gutierrez said in the letter sent to Brian Roberts, chairman of Comcast Corporation, and Stephen Burke, president of NBC.
Mr. Gutierrez and other immigrant rights groups have argued that Mr. Trump’s rhetoric, and his plan to fix the nation’s immigration system, has been insensitive to immigrants.
Some conservatives, meanwhile, have celebrated Mr. Trump’s approach to immigration.
For his part, Mr. Trump said the uproar over his hosting SNL is going to assure one thing: great television ratings.
“I think that Gutierrez and everyone else is driving the ratings through the roof,” Mr. Trump told The Washington Times on Tuesday. “It will be the highest rated SNL ever.”
Mr. Trump also described Lorne Michaels, executive producer of SNL, as “a professional that knows what he is doing.”
The Gutierrez letter comes after America’s Voice, a leading Hispanic advocacy group, and MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy group, launched a petition for NBC to drop Mr. Trump.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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