Brinkley, during a discussion on the term "anchor baby" was asked about the historical context of controversial terms in politics. During the question, host Don Lemon stated the last term he remembers being so controversial was "welfare queens." Brinkley's response began, "Or Donald Trump playing the birther card about Barack Obama."
He continued, "I think there's a lot of -- they used to call them [in] the 19th century, Know-Nothingness. [The] Know-Nothing Party was anti-Mormon, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish. And here tonight in California -- I mean, in Alabama, tonight, watching this, you think about George Wallace with 'segregation now,' and 'segregation forever.' Plays well with a certain audience, but is that the brand the GOP wants to have represented. In other words, Trump did well tonight. He had a lot of momentum --."