A Florida Democrat gave a bizarre response after getting caught falsely claiming to be Hispanic while running for Miami Beach City Commission.
Kristen Rosen Gonzalez called herself “the most high-profile Hispanic Democrat in the City of Miami Beach” during a candidate interview with Democratic Party leaders. Gonzalez is running for the office after previously serving and unsuccessfully running for U.S. Congress.
While Gonzalez does have a Hispanic surname, she obtained it from a previous marriage to a Hispanic man that ended in divorce in 2009.
When confronted about her false assumption of a Hispanic identity, Gonzalez was dismissive of the criticism.
“Well, I’m perceived as being Hispanic,” Rosen Gonzalez said in an interview with Jim DeFede of CBS Miami.
“I’m perceived as being Hispanic by all of the Hispanics in my community. I’m their girl. My last name is Hispanic. I know I’m not Hispanic,” she added.
Here’s the report from CBS Miami:
“I’m sorry I probably oversold myself,” Gonzalez continued. “If you want to nail me to the cross, go ahead. Make me look foolish.”
DeFede interviewed Maria-Elena Lopez, who was present at the interview and is an actual Hispanic woman, and she said that she believed Gonzalez was pretending to be Hispanic in order to gain support from Hispanics in the district.
“I honestly feel that is the purpose,” Lopez said. “By keeping a Hispanic name, you are trying to confuse voters.”
She also confirmed to CBS Miami that having an ex-spouse who was Hispanic “does not give you the right to say you are Hispanic.”
Robert Dempster, the chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, told CBS Miami that he didn’t realize at the time of the interview that Gonzalez was lying about her heritage.
“It is a particularly odd stance for her to take,” Dempster said. “Especially given that the interview was on the second day of Hispanic Heritage Month.”
Gonzalez previously made headlines when she proposed a tax on bullets in order to raise billions of dollars to fortify schools against mass shootings.
“You know what, most of these shooters are men, and they get this spike in testosterone, some emotional reaction, they cannot have availability, not to guns, not to these bullets, we have to make it harder,” she said on MSNBC.
*story by The Blaze
