The head of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce said Donald Trump's efforts to court Hispanic voters will be futile.
"You know what, as I said a year ago right here on MSNBC, you can't unring the bell with the Hispanic community," Javier Palomarez, the chamber's president and CEO, said Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." He added that Clinton will "mop the floor with Donald Trump" on Election Day.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, met with Latino leaders from nearly a dozen states on Saturday in New York. But Trump's campaign has denied that the meeting means he is changing his call to deport the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
Last November, Trump called for a "deportation force" to do the job. His new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said Sunday that force's creation was "to be determined."
"Donald Trump began his political career by denouncing and insulting Hispanics all over this country," Palomarez said Monday. "This is a case of too little, too late. This is a very desperate candidate. And no speech is going to change that now."
Trump has caught flack for his many comments about Latinos. When he announced his candidacy for president, he said some Mexicans were "rapists," and said they bring crime into the U.S. He also also said some immigrants, including Mexicans, were "killers."
In late June, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the group's first-ever endorsement of a presidential nominee.
In that endorsement, Palomarez said the Trump campaign "has gone from frankly something that was entertaining, comical, and has devolved into something that is frankly scary."