SANTA ANA – Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said Friday that her now-famous remark about "Vietnamese" trying to take her seat had been misinterpreted but apologized if it caused any offense.
She did not, however, apologize for calling her Republican challenger Van Tran – himself an immigrant from Vietnam – anti-immigrant. Instead, she accused him of using her words to "take a cheap political shot."
Sanchez told an interviewer earlier this month on Spanish-language television that "the Vietnamese and the Republicans" were trying to wrest control of her seat in Congress. She described Tran in the same interview as "very anti-immigrant and very anti-Hispanic."
(To read the initial story on this, click here.)
"I used a poor choice of words that some people have taken as offensive," Sanchez said during a small press conference late Friday afternoon. "Let me say as clearly as I can that if, through my inarticulate use of the language, I offended anyone, I apologize for those remarks."
Tran, who had asked for an apology, said he has not yet received a response from Sanchez's campaign. He is scheduled to appear on the same Spanish-language program, 'Al Punto' on Univision, on Sunday.
"She directly attacked me, slandered me," he said Friday, after her press conference. "She ought to do the right thing, come out and apologize. Instead of quibbling, instead of arguing, instead of trying to parse her words."
(To read about a third candidate in the race, who could easily affect the outcome, click here.)
Sanchez's remarks, first picked up by OC Weekly, have since lit up the blogosphere, fired up talk radio, and made headlines coast to coast.
She said Friday that her comment in the interview "definitely was misinterpreted." She said she was talking only about those Vietnamese and Republicans who support her opponent. "I have fought extremely hard on behalf of the Vietnamese community," she said, pointing to her founding role in the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam.
She said groups that she described as anti-immigrant have come out in support of Tran – a comment that Tran called "preposterous." He accused her of going on a "racial rampage on Spanish-language TV," and again asked for an apology.
Both Tran and Sanchez said their records would win the vote, with Vietnamese and with any other demographic in the 47th District in central Orange County. And both said they were eager to compare records, although Sanchez has not yet accepted Tran's challenge to debate.
"We should be talking about issues that are important to this district," Tran said.
The Democrats are ripping the country apart. Their mindset leads to destructive tribalism. Want the US to look like Iraq follow the Democrats.
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