Keller @ Large: Trump Supporter Panel
BOSTON (CBS) -- This week, two Donald Trump supporters--John Gibbs, contributor to The Federalist Magazine, and Massachusetts State Representative Geoff Diehl, co-chair of the Trump campaign in the state--told WBZ political analyst Jon Keller why they believe in the GOP candidate.
Gibbs recently wrote a column in The Federalist saying that it was Trump's stances on illegal immigration and trade that attracted him to the candidate--and that his stance on those issues could have a positive impact on the economic standing of African-Americans. Jon asked Gibbs what he thought of Trump's "equivocating" on the issue of deportations.
"If you actually go to Trump's website, and you look at his policy position on illegal immigration, he never actually mentioned anything about a deportation force that was going to go door-to-door and drag people out and send them back home," Gibbs said.
Gibbs added that he believes making it harder for illegal immigrants to send money to relatives in their home countries, making it harder for employers to hire illegal immigrants, and making sure illegal immigrants don't receive welfare will make those immigrants go home voluntarily.
"I believe you don't need to have a deportation force," he said. "If you can create an economic environment in which people no longer see it economically viable to be in the US illegally, then they will go back home."
Diehl said the Clinton campaign was trying to brand Trump as a racist to distract from criticism against her.
"Right now the campaign is in a mode where Hillary Clinton is getting rightfully criticized for her foundation and the pay-to-play scandals with people donating money from foreign country to get, when she was Secretary of State, special considerations for certain things," Diehl said.
He said that accusing the GOP candidate of racism is "right out of the Democratic playbook."
"Now she's trying to use racism in the campaign to try to label Trump as a racist, as a bigot," Diehl said. "All he's saying is, no, your policies are the ones that continue to hurt people."
The panel also talked about Trump's recent pitch to African-American voters, and white nationalist and alt-right support of the candidate.