Kristina Asmus: Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso declares he’s NOT White because he’s Italian… Makes sense?

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso declares he’s not white because he’s Italian… That makes him a ‘Latino Amigo’

The billionaire added his Italian American heritage makes him ‘Latin,’ sparking a social media uproar.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso insisted he’s not white, but really Italian — and thus “Latin” — during an awkward debate moment Tuesday in the nation’s second-largest city.

The billionaire real estate developer Caruso is facing off against U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat seeking to become the city’s first Black woman mayor.

Next month’s election comes in the wake of the L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez stepping down from her leadership post and taking a leave of absence from the council, after an audio recording of her making racist remarks surfaced.

In bringing up that topic, Telemundo anchor Dunia Elvir stated: “The next mayor of Los Angeles will be either an African-American woman or a white man.”

“I’m Italian,” Caruso interjected.

Elvir responded, “Italian American,” as Caruso insisted that his racial identification be stated on his terms.

“That’s Latin, thank you,” Caruso said.

The mayoral hopeful said he’s, for decades, led efforts to bring more education opportunities and healthcare to Black and Latino communities in Los Angeles.

“I connect with the Latino community but quite frankly my job as mayor is to connect with every community — the Latino community, the Black community, the Asian community, right? The Jewish community,” said Caruso, who is running as a Democrat.

“If one one group rises, we all rise. We do this together in unison and we don’t separate, we don’t divide. But we all say to ourselves we can do this and we can have a better city.”