CNN political commentator Jeffrey Lord attacked Univision anchor Jorge Ramos for playing the “race card” even though he is a “blue-eyed, light-skinned ... European Mexican.” Lord also connected Ramos to Virginia shooter Vester Lee Flanagan II and alleged Charleston shooter Dylann Roof, claiming they all engaged in “dividing the country by race.”

On August 25, Ramos, one of the country's top Hispanic journalists, was booted from Donald Trump's press conference while attempting to ask the Republican presidential candidate questions about his immigration policy. Ramos was later allowed to return. Conservative media subsequently cheered Trump for his treatment of Ramos.

In his August 27 column for The American Spectator, Lord criticized Ramos for being “in Iowa to score a blow for race card playing” by “rant[ing]” against Trump on immigration. Lord dismissed him as “a left-wing illegal immigration activist disguised as a journalist” who fulfills “every stereotype of the smarty-pants rude media type that millions of Americans have come to loathe.”

Lord then transitioned to an attack on Ramos' ethnic background. He cited a 2011 column by Ruben Navarrette Jr. stating that in Mexico, many of the most important jobs go to those who “have the lightest skin.” Lord then wrote, “Now let's get back to Jorge Ramos. The blue-eyed, light-skinned Ramos -- let's be candid he is a European Mexican -- is the epitome of what Navarrete is saying.”

Lord proceeded to criticize the idea that America should be a “multiethnic, multi-racial and multicultural” nation, claiming:

Ramos also penned a 2002 column in which he revealed that he wants to turn America from the “melting pot” of historical fame into a North American version of Mexico -- divided by class and race. In the words of Ramos, “the challenge of the United States is that it recognize itself as it is--a multiethnic, multi-racial and multicultural nation.” This is exactly antithetical to the American Dream. America is not supposed to be an “ethnic” or “racial” nation let alone a “multiethnic, multi-racial and multicultural” nation. “All men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence is about “all men.” Period. Full stop. It says nothing about race or ethnicity. The nation is founded on principles of freedom and liberty -- ideas, not skin color or class structure. Yet that is not what Ramos is seeking. He is playing the Mexican version of the race card and wanting to transfer the rigid class structure of his native country northward.

He continued by drawing a line from Ramos' advocacy to “slavery to segregation to lynching to the Ku Klux Klan” :

It is no accident that his ideas get such a warm welcome on the American Left. As we note here so often, the political party that fuels the American Left is the Democrats -- the party that arose around the organizing principle of dividing Americans by skin color. From slavery to segregation to lynching to the Ku Klux Klan to illegal immigration, the beating heart of the American left is race -- race card-playing, outright racism. It is no wonder that Ramos, coming from a Mexican society that is itself hopelessly divided by out and out racism thinks it would be terrific to import this way of life to America. And it is no wonder that millions of Americans -- yes, those supporters of Donald Trump -- are furiously resisting. Trump supporters come from a wide diversity of ethnicities -- and in a country that is 100% populated by the descendants of immigrants from all over the globe -- Trump supporters are demanding a colorblind society of American social mobility -- where race and class remain the foreign notions that so many millions came here to escape.

During an appearance today on CNN's New Day, Lord also connected Jorge Ramos to mass shooters in Virginia and Charleston.

When asked about potential solutions to shootings, Lord said that “when you read this guy's manifesto ... he was into a race war. A reaction, which he mentioned, of the Charleston shooting. And that guy was motivated by race.” He then connected the mass-shooters to Ramos, stating: “I'm suggesting here that instead of dividing the country by race, which is what we seem to do, which is what, for instance, Jorge Ramos was all about in that press conference. It's all about the race of people. We shouldn't be going down that path.” From CNN:

LORD: You know, two things that are not being discussed here at all when you read this guy's manifesto, one is race and the other is value of life. And what do we have here? We have this whole Planned Parenthood issue going on in which basically they're selling baby parts, devaluing life. ALISYN CAMEROTA: But how is that connected to a man who's just, who feels slighted and decides that killing other people is the answer? LORD: Right. In other words he's not valuing life. He didn't value the lives of the people that he killed. And aside from that, he was into a race war. A reaction, which he mentioned, of the Charleston shooting. And that guy was motivated by race. So I'm suggesting here that instead of dividing the country by race, which is what we seem to do, which is what, for instance, Jorge Ramos was all about in that press conference. It's all about the race of people. We shouldn't be going down that path. This is a color blind country, that was Dr. King's goal, that's where we should be headed, and I think that is something that we should be discussing as well as mental illness and guns.

Lord has a history of pushing fringe rhetoric and misinformation. He engaged in a “profoundly ahistorical” crusade to deny the lynching of a black man, has repeatedly defended Trump's false anti-Mexican immigrant rhetoric, and pushed bogus conspiracies about progressives and Democrats.

Despite his history, CNN hired Lord as a CNN political commentator earlier this month.