'Saturday Night Live' cast, news & update: Latinos in congress pressures NBC to drop Donald Trump's appearance from show
A group of Latino lawmakers have called for dropping Donald Trump from hosting "Saturday Night Live."
The 26-member Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) has issued a statement directed at NBC Universal and "Saturday Night Live" executive producer Lorne Michaels to disinvite Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump from hosting the show on Nov. 7.
The statement was issued on Monday and reiterated Trump's racist remarks against Latinos.
"Racism is not funny," the statement read, as reported by the New York Daily News. "Mr. Trump's racist remarks and his continued rhetoric demonizing Latinos and immigrants has created fear within these communities around the country.
"The Congressional Hispanic Caucus urges NBC Universal to stand by its earlier commitment to end its relationship with Mr. Trump because the values of 'respect and dignity for all people' are more important than ratings and ad revenues."
The outlet aded that majority of the Caucus were opposed to Trump's hosting of the show this Saturday.
A vocal CHC member called for an apology from Trump as what he should have done, he says.
"When a TV personality calls Mexicans and Latinos criminals and rapists, a corporate network should not give him 90-minutes of free air time in an entertainment venue without his first apologizing to the American people," said Rep. Luiz Gutierrez (D-Ill.), via a report by Huffington Post. "So why can't NBC hold their own TV shows responsible to keep an unapologetic racist from hosting a comedy show?"
The report by NY Daily News adds that there have been other groups aside from CHC from calling out NBC Universal and using the Republican presidential candidate as a "ratings ploy". The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda accused the network of enabling Trump the opportunity to make a "hateful speech" when he hosts "Saturday Night Live."
"We are appalled that you would enable Trump's hateful speech for nothing (more) than a ratings ploy and ask that you rescind the SNL invitation," the group wrote last month.
Neither NBC nor Donald Trump has issued a statement regarding the issues.
In the report by New York Times, Trump was unfazed by being called out by the Latino group.
"Oh, good, it will get even higher ratings. It's going to be one of the highest-rated shows ever," Trump said, before signing copies of his new book "Crippled America."
The outlet says that Trump's television appearances tend to draw in a massive amount of viewership to which it cites the record-breaking views of the first three Republican debates.