CNN commentator Ana Navarro made a name for herself in 2016 as an anti-Trump Republican on cable TV. But, so she says, it isn’t a new thing. Navarro told a star-studded audience at CAA’s first-ever Amplify conference that she once did it to the party’s 2008 presidential candidate, John McCain.
Navarro said to the crowd at the Montage Laguna Beach that after she became McCain’s national Hispanic chair, back “when the Republicans were trying to win the Hispanic vote” one of her tasks was to prepare his vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, for a Univision interview. It did not go well, and she says she told the Arizona senator that in explicit terms when he asked for feedback.
“John, if you win and you die, we’re fucked,” said Navarro, who notably did not resign from the McCain campaign.
Navarro also talked about her emotional reaction when President Trump doubled down on anti-Latino rhetoric during his ultimately successful campaign, which prompted her to say p—y on live television. That had a couple of unintended consequences.
“Two things happened, I got a lot more lesbian followers, and my mother did not speak to me,” Navarro said. “I said to my mom, ‘You don’t smoke, you don’t drink and you’ve only been with one man.’ I’m obviously my father’s child.”
Navarro lamented about a time when it was “embarrassing to be a bigot,” but she was encouraged by the response to what she framed as an onslaught on American values.
“This is the most divided time in America, but it’s also the most united time in America,” she said.