Governor Rossello commented to the Washington Examiner that he felt it was “a false narrative” adding “let’s just make it what this is: it’s a civil rights issue, it’s a democratic rights issue.”

Rossello also commented:

“Everybody knows that the U.S. is the third-largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world so this narrative about, you know, the U.S. not wanting a Latino state or a Hispanic state just doesn’t jibe with reality.”

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The Washington Examiner reports:

Gutierrez, a progressive Democrat, issued a statement earlier this month ahead of Puerto Rico’s fifth nonbinding plebiscite for statehood that said the island’s Hispanic population would prevent it from being a state.

“The supporters of statehood are selling a fantasy that a Latino, Caribbean nation will be admitted as a state during the era of Donald Trump; that states, many of which supported Trump, will accept a Spanish-speaking state that will receive just as many senators and maybe even more House seats than they currently have,” Gutierrez said in a June 9 statement. “I do not point out Puerto Rico’s problems to denigrate my fellow Puerto Ricans, simply to point out the reality that what is being peddled by the supporters of statehood is a fantasy.”