A very interesting exchange took place between Rudy Giuliani, known popularly as America’s Mayor, and Simon Hobbs, a CNBC anchor at about 2:12 pm on Friday, April 19. The conversation went as below:
- Simon Hobbs – Mr. Mayor do we need to change the conversation about immigration at the
moment; even Senator Rubio says there are big questions, legitimate questions now to ask that will
inform the debate. Does it take us to a different solution? - Mayor Giuliani – No
- Simon Hobbs – Why?
- Mayor Giuliani – Not one case, not one case. That’s overreacting too quickly. First of all we don’t know if anything
went wrong in the immigration process, how did that happen, what was his
family like,
At this point Simon Hobbs interrupted in an angry tone.
- Simon Hobbs – Mr. Mayor, forgive me for interrupting you – many people will say
something precisely went wrong; they took in people in asylum; the sons
of whom did not integrate and then bombed Boston..surely that is
something that has gone wrong with the immigration situation. - Mayor Giuliani – I don’t know that you can make that determination in the immigration
process… how many people are you going to exclude on that basis - Simon Hobbs – However many it takes that don’t bomb I guess.
- Mayor Giuliani – that would mean excluding everybody coming from a foreign country; I
have found that the better way to discuss these public policy issues is
when you get a couple of weeks out from it and you are not dealing with
the emotion of this. Look anybody you let in could turn out to be a
maniac. Does that mean you let nobody in? Is there a psychological test
that can be performed that could determine this on the parents? I don’t
know. These are very serious issues to be debated. I wouldn’t start to
create a lot of fear about immigration around this one case right now.
First our personal reaction. Once again we felt proud of our mayor, America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He is known for saying what he feels, what he means. And what he said to the CNBC anchor shines in its purity of the American spirit. And his logic is both rational and humane.
Mayor Giuliani is the man who kept New York City together on and after that terrible day in September, 2001. It would have been easy for any man to succumb to anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions. But he did not. He did not then and does not now attribute individual acts to an entire community. President George W. Bush personified that great American spirit when he told the nation after September 2001 what Mayor Giuliani told CNBC’s Simon Hobbs on Friday. That is what makes America great and that is what every immigrant must understand.
CNBC’s Simon Hobbs is himself an immigrant, an immigrant from UK. Based on his own comments on CNBC’s air, he has been awarded a Green Card by America’s Immigration Service. Presumably, in due course, Mr. Hobbs would file to become a naturalized citizen of the United States of America. That would be mainly in the letter of the law.
Because Mr. Hobbs demonstrated clearly in the above exchange that in spirit he is not ready to become an American. His exchange suggests to us that he believes in the way Britain treats its immigrants, the special favors it extends to people based on color, race and national origin. Hopefully, Simon Hobbs will learn from his exchange with Mayor Giuliani.
This brings us to CNBC and that network’s own selective policy of importing anchors from CNBC’s “first in business worldwide” network. We have never seen CNBC bring over any anchor from Africa, Asia or Latin America. Even anchors from continental Europe are deemed unacceptable by CNBC America. No Danish, French, German, Italian anchor from CNBC Europe has been invited to join CNBC America. In fact, the only other anchor that has been brought over by CNBC to America is Amanda Drury from Australia.
Apparently CNBC Management thinks anchors of non-Anglo ethnicities won’t be acceptable in America. Sort of similar to CNBC’s Simon Hobbs questioning whether immigrants of certain ethnicities should be allowed into America?
Send your feedback to [email protected] Or @MacroViewpoints on Twitter