A coalition of advocacy groups delivered petitions to NBC yesterday, urging the network to drop presidential candidate Trump as the host of Saturday Night Live this weekend.
"There's mounting evidence that Donald Trump's racist demagoguery is resulting in real-world violence and physical and verbal intimidation," Mushed Zaheed, deputy political director of the leftist Credo Action, one of the participating groups, said in a statement.
"It is shameful for 'SNL' and NBC to think that racism can be repackaged as comedy," said Juan Escalante, digital campaigns manager for America's Voice, another group participating in the coalition.
Trump came under fire after saying that some illegal immigrants from Mexico were criminals and rapists. NBC cut Miss Universe ties with Trump and said he would never appear on "The Celebrity Apprentice."
"It is shameful for 'SNL' and NBC to think that racism can be repackaged as comedy," said Juan Escalante, digital campaigns manager for America's Voice, another group participating in the coalition.
Some fo the other groups protesting Trump are National Hispanic Media Coalition, MoveOn.org and National Council of La Raza. Protestors gathered in front of NBC's midtown office as the petitions were delivered.
Zaheed said NBC was only interested in ratings and allowing "a free national platform to bolster his racist and xenophobic campaign."
And the anti-Trump movement continued online with the names of dozens of prominent writers, filmmakers, academics and others from the United States, Spain and Latin America attached to it.
We refuse to keep silent in the face of the alarming declarations of the candidate for the presidency of the United States Donald Trump," the letter posted Tuesday reads. "His hate speech appeals to the lowest passions like xenophobia, machismo, political intolerance and religious dogmatism."
The letter asks Americans to "cease to tolerate his absurd positions."
Trump was pleased to hear about the demonstrations and petitions.
"Look, I think they should demonstrate" he said. "Ratings will go even higher than they are going to be. It's going to be one of their highest-rated shows ever and they're very excited about it."
