In a bizarre twist, even for Sharron Angle, Republican/Tea Party candidate for Senate in the state of Nevada, Angle tells a group of Hispanic students that she is “not sure that all of you are Latino.”

An ID check maybe, Ms Angle? 

Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun reports that this statement was made to members of the Hispanic Students Union at Ralston High.  All the students in the room were Hispanic.

And then goes on to say she’s been called the “first Asian legislator in the Nevada State Assembly.”  Huh?  Should we ask: Did she come here legally?

“So that’s what we want is a secure and sovereign nation and, you know, I don’t know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian to me. I don’t know that. [Note: it’s the Hispanic Student Union. The whole room is Hispanic teenagers.] What we know, what we know about ourselves is that we are a melting pot in this country. My grandchildren are evidence of that. I’m evidence of that. I’ve been called the first Asian legislator in our Nevada State Assembly.”

This came during a meeting in which students challenged Angle on her positions on race and immigration. Ralston has posted a video of the event which can be viewed here.

Angle’s campaign has been replete with race-baiting, misinformation, and outlandish policy positions, such as her suggestions that because rape is “part of God’s plan,” a woman should carry her rapist’s pregnancy to term.

She is strongly in favor of “Arizona-style” immigration laws and has repeated the canard that violence has increased on the United States side of the border with Mexico.

A recent ad calling for “securing the borders” was widely criticized by Latino and human rights groups in part because of misinformation and in part because of the scare tactics using Hispanic men to generate fear. 

Steve Benen, author of Political Animal at Washington Monthly, called it a “racist, deceptive ad, which uses an image of young Latino men as part of a divisive attempt to scare white people.

She told the Hispanic Student Union that she’s “not sure” the Mexicans in her ad are, in fact, Latino, and went on to argue that her seemingly-racist commercial is intended to raise fears about the Canadian border.

Seriously. That’s what she said.

As we talked about over the weekend, I really should be beyond surprise by now. But the derangement of some unbalanced candidates for powerful public offices is so overwhelming, I often feel like I’m watching some kind of twisted performance art.

Yet when asked by Hispanic students about the ad, she complained that they were “misinterpreting those commercials.”

“I’m not sure that those are Latinos in that commercial. What it is, is a fence and there are people coming across that fence,” Angle said, per the AP. “What we know is that our northern border is where the terrorists came through. That’s the most porous border that we have. We cannot allow terrorists, we cannot allow anyone to come across our border if we don’t know why they’re coming. So, we have to secure all of our borders and that’s what that was about, is border security.”

The original ad by the Angle campaign is no longer available because of a dispute about how the Angle campaign obtained one of the images.  Watch the first controversial ad here:

During last week’s debate, reports ABC News, Angle reiterated her support for an Arizona-style immigration law: “The solution is simple: Secure the borders, enforce the laws. I think every state should have a sheriff like Joe Arpaio, and I think we should be supporting states like Arizona.”

Benen writes:

After 20 years following politics closely, I’ve just never seen anything so pathological. Sharron Angle is either mentally disturbed or she thinks the people of Nevada are morons.