Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina claimed today that English is the official language of the United States (video below).
Fiorina was asked on CNN’s "State of the Union" program about fellow GOP candidate Donald Trump telling Jeb Bush, another Republican candidate, to speak English.
Earlier this week, Bush told a Latino reporter in Miami, in Spanish, that Trump was not a conservative. Trump then fired back with his linguistic advice.
In response, Fiorina told CNN that Bush and Trump were going at as front runners do, but added:
Look, I admire the fact that Jeb Bush is multilingual. I admire the fact that so many people are multilingual. And I also think that English is the official language of the United States.
However, the U.S. doesn't have an official language.
Fiorina added: "For 25 years, the border has been insecure. This is absurd. This is a fall down of a basic government responsibility. We have to secure the border, period."
According to a study by the Instituto Cervantes, published in June, the U.S. is second only to Mexico when it comes to Spanish-speaking residents, noted The Guardian.
Mexico has 121 million Spanish speakers, the U.S. has 52 million (41 million speak Spanish, 11 million are bilingual) and Columbia comes in third with 48 million, according to the study. The U.S. is predicted to have 138 million people speaking Spanish by 2050, which would put it in first place.
Sources: CNN, The Guardian / Photo Credit: CNN Screenshot