Journalist and Univision anchor Enrique Acevedo says that Republican members of Congress have consistently been ignoring the network since Donald Trump’s inauguration. That’s unsurprising news considering the party’s sole Latino outreach right now seems to be ICE raids and a wall.
Trump’s own feud with Univision stretches back to 2015, when Trump’s bodyguard physically threw Jorge Ramos out of a press conference in Iowa after the acclaimed journalist dared to ask him about his anti-immigrant policies (the one other man to physically eject Ramos for asking tough questions? Fidel Castro). Now with Trump as the party’s standard-bearer (and probably eager to avoid hardball questions about his deportation force), Republicans are joining in on his feud:
Acevedo said GOP members of Congress — save for those who represent the Miami area, where Univision is headquartered and is particularly strong — have been avoiding the network, the nation's largest Spanish language platform, since inauguration day.
"It’s happened more since the inauguration. It’s harder to get access to Republicans than it is to get access to Democrats and I understand why that is. Republicans think they have more to lose going on Univision,” Acevedo said, citing his attempts to get Republican senators like Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on the air. “If we get an answer, which is an exception, the answer is: 'It’s a busy week, they’re not doing media,' and then we see them on Fox or CNN.”
According to POLITICO, two Senate Republican aides “acknowledged that they have avoided or would avoid Univision because they don’t feel as though they’ll get fair treatment from the network.” Because apparently facing questions about your party’s racist, anti-immigrant policies targeting moms, U.S. Army veterans, Dreamers, and millions of other undocumented immigrants for arrest and deportation somehow equals being treated unfairly.
“We hesitate to give additional access to Univision because they have never in the past been fair,” one of the aides said. "They seem to have a singular focus in driving a wedge on immigration issues. We may as well be interviewing with Rachel Maddow. Even so, we invite them to our events, answer questions they ask and give them the information they request. But they have not shown a willingness to treat our boss well, in which case we will decline to offer them exclusive interviews.”
Univision is the most-watched network among U.S. Latinos, with Ramos’ Sunday news program oftentimes drawing in more young voters than English-language competitors. “Remember what L.B.J. said, ‘When you lose Walter Cronkite, you’ve lost the war’?” a former official for George W. Bush once asked. “[Ramos is] not only a journalist, he’s become the voice of the Latino constituency.” Ignoring Univision means ignoring 55 million Latinos, many of whom backed Hillary Clinton over Trump by historic margins according to leading pollster Latino Decisions. That margin was caused in large part by the hateful policies some Republicans are doing their best to avoid discussing:
"The Republicans have already built the wall around Univision and our audience,” said Acevedo, who moved to Washington to cover the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s administration. "They can ignore us at their own peril but it's a disservice to the 55 million Latinos who want to hear form their members of Congress regardless of affiliation and they deserve to hear from them.”