Things got very entertaining when Latinos for Trump co-founder Bianca Gracia took center stage during a discussion with Karoline Leavitt in the White House press briefing on Friday, October 3, with the two joking about the potential for what Gracia called a “siesta fiesta” on the White House’s South Lawn.
For reference, Gracia is a contributor to Newsmax, the conservative cable news channel and news website. She was apparently unknown to Leavitt before the exchange, but the two had a fun time, or so it appeared, going back and forth during it. Particularly, Leavitt praised Gracia’s “energy” in the exchange.
The conversation came when Leavitt called on the person “yelling in the back,” and Gracia chimed in to ask about the potential for a Hispanic Heritage Month event at the White House as she also skewered the Democratic Party for, as she put it, “choosing illegals over hard-working Hispanic Americans”.
Doing so, Gracia noted that the previously scheduled Hispanic heritage celebration had been cancelled because of the shutdown, saying, “This week the Democrats have chosen illegals over hardworking Hispanic Americans during Hispanic Heritage Month, causing the White House to cancel the celebration with the president.”
She continued, “Is the president open to letting the Hispanics, who overwhelmingly voted for him, have their own siesta fiesta on the White House lawn, opposed to the fancy, you know — we don’t need fancy-shmancy, you can give us the backyard and we’ll fill it all in and have our own fiesta. Is the president open to that?”
Responding, Leavitt seemed surprised but amused by Gracia’s bevy of questions and high energy. She began by saying, “I had no idea she was going to ask that question.” Continuing, Leavitt said, as the room chuckled, “I just want to preface that. I’ve never met you. I just want to say that. I love your energy.”
Then, moving more toward answering the question, Leavitt said that the event had to be cancelled, as Gracia had noted, thanks to the government shutdown foisted on the country by the Democrats. She did note, however, that it can and will be rescheduled once the government eventually reopens.
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Commenting on that, Leavitt first said that because there is ongoing construction, she couldn’t promise the South Lawn that Gracia wanted for the event, saying, “I can’t personally unilaterally promise the South Lawn grounds. We have some construction going on out there.”
Continuing, Leavitt noted that President Trump saw the event’s cancellation as unfortunate and the Administration was busy dealing with shutdown-related things, saying, “But I do think, I know that everyone here views it as very unfortunate we had to cancel or hopefully just reschedule the Hispanic American Heritage Month event, and it’s because we are working around the clock during this government shutdown.”
Concluding, Leavitt managed to get in a jab at the Democrats for the shutdown and promised Gracia that the event would be rescheduled once the government manages to open back up. She said, “So when the Democrats vote to reopen the government that event will be back in the planning stages.”
Watch them here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video