There was a higher number of Latin Americans that were voted into the U.S. Congress in the 2022 midterm elections. Among them is Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL-13), a Trump-backed rising star among Republicans.
Julio Ricardo Varela of MSNBC, however, insinuates that Rep. Luna is a white supremacist in a recent opinion piece.
Luna takes umbrage with his article in a recent tweet, stating that "Wow. @MSNBC is really trying to paint me as a white supremacist? Honestly I’m pretty sick of left leaning media focusing so much on my race. It’s sad to see how triggered the left is over the fact that I’m conservative."
Wow. @MSNBC is really trying to paint me as a white supremacist? Honestly I’m pretty sick of left leaning media focusing so much on my race. It’s sad to see how triggered the left is over the fact that I’m conservative.
— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) January 8, 2023
Varela's article criticizes Luna as an example of "a minority of Latinos who view fellow Latinos and Latinas as the "other"" who are boosted by the wider MAGA movement because it "provides cover for their white nationalist allies" and also calls Luna a "Latina version of Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo" who "followed the MAGA playbook to gain political fame."
He uses the recent spat between Luna and MAGA personality Matt Tito, who accused Luna of witchcraft and sleeping with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL-1); as evidence that "Latinos' support of the MAGA agenda doesn’t mean the overall MAGA crowd supports Latinos." Varela's assertion prompts the question of how such infighting would be perceived by the Latino community if Luna was a Democrat.
Nonetheless, one cannot help but see the similarity of this and comments made by Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) about Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL-19). As we covered, when Donalds received nomination for Speaker of the House, Bush derided him as "a prop" who "despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy." Donalds responded that "Before you judge my agenda, let's have a debate over the policies and the outcomes. Until then, don't be a crab in a barrel" and later added "As a Black man to a Black woman, I’d never do that to you. It’s a shame you did it to me."
