Justin's Political Corner

Gabriela Saucedo Mercer hasn’t even won the Republican primary for Congress in Arizona yet, but she is already facing attacks from the Democratic Congressman (Raúl Grijalva) she is hoping to unseat in November over some incendiary comments she made in the past about Middle Eastern immigrants.

In an interview with a conservative website earlier this year, Saucedo Mercer talked in depth about her views on immigration. A Mexican immigrant herself who became a U.S. citizen, she said the issue was important because people from places other than Mexico were among those coming across the border illegally.

“That includes Chinese, Middle Easterners,” she said. “If you know Middle Easterners, a lot of them, they look Mexican or they look, you know, like a lot of people in South America, dark skin, dark hair, brown eyes. And they mix. They mix in.

“And those people, their only goal in life is to, to cause harm to the United States. So why do we want them here, either legally or illegally? When they come across the border, besides the trash that they leave behind, the drug smuggling, the killings, the beheadings. I mean, you are seeing stuff. It’s a war out there.”

Saucedo Mercer gave the interview originally to a conservative website called Western Free Press, but it went almost unnoticed until now. On Tuesday afternoon, it had only 215 views on YouTube.

Still, she has been a favorite in some Republican circles. On her website, she boasts of numerous endorsements, including from retired Lt. Gen. William Boykin, known for his anti-Muslim views, as well as Arizona’s Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R), who apologized for embarrassing the state earlier this year after he threatened to keep Barack Obama off the November ballot if the president couldn’t prove he was really born in the United States.

Saucedo Mercer’s Facebook page shows her posing for photos next to former presidential candidate Herman Cain as well as presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

In the interview, Saucedo Mercer also commented on the religious affiliations of some of some immigrants who were crossing the border illegally. She said evidence of Muslims crossing the border were found in the desert in Arizona.

h/t: Nick R. Martin at TPM Muckracker