The Daily Show's Trevor Noah couldn't help but wonder if Donald Trump was trying to bridge the gap with Hispanic voters when he whipped out the phrase "bad hombres" at the debate Wednesday night. Trump, in his response to a question about border security, vowed to go after drug dealers and "keep drugs out of our country." "We have some bad hombres here and we're gonna get 'em out," the Republican presidential candidate said.
Noah seized on Trump's Spanglish, wondering whether there are "Mexican people at home going, 'You know, I know Trump thinks we're all criminals and rapists, but he said hombres. Yeah. Maybe we're not so different after all, man.'" Noah then imagined Trump congratulating himself on learning a new word and deploying it successfully.
An alternate explanation for Trump's phrase came from Trump surrogate Jeffrey Lord on CNN, who said the word came "from American television westerns in the 1950s." Lord's CNN colleague Anderson Cooper was quick to note that 1950s television may not be "the best benchmark for what is good language," and Noah's coverage was similarly unforgiving — watch Noah take on Trump attempts at foreign language, and all the other memorable moments from last night's debate, in the clip below. Becca Stanek
The Week
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