By Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey
Washington Post
When Donald Trump ran for reelection in 2020, his campaign called Univision, the nation’s most influential Spanish-language network, “a leftist propaganda machine and a mouthpiece of the Democrat Party.”
“We shall treat them accordingly,” top advisers promised.
Three years later, Trump is treating Univision and its new corporate owners like long-lost friends. He hosted a trio of its executives at Mar-a-Lago last week during an hour-long Univision interview that was notable for its gracious tone, starting with a question about how well he is doing among Latino voters in early general election polling.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, a friend of one of the executives, helped arrange the interview and was also in the room, according to multiple people familiar with the event.
“All you have to do is look at the owners of Univision. They’re unbelievable entrepreneurial people, and they like me,” Trump said in response to the question about Latino voters.
The reversal has shocked Democrats — who are preparing a massive ad campaign to brand Trump as hostile to Latino interests — and some journalists inside Univision, who think that the past week has demonstrated the heavy hand of their new corporate bosses. The Mexican media company Grupo Televisa, which has long fostered a close relationship with Mexican political leaders, merged with Univision in 2021.
The Democratic alarm further spiked two days later, when Univision advertising representatives told the Biden campaign that spots already purchased to run during the Trump interview in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida had been canceled — owing to a heretofore unannounced policy about opposition advertising in single-candidate interviews.
Univision also canceled a booking with Biden’s Hispanic Media Director Maca Casado to respond to the Trump interview after it aired on the network’s late news broadcast, according to people familiar with the details, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity for this article because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Not since 2004, when former president George W. Bush outperformed expectations among Latino voters, has the Spanish-speaking population been so up for grabs in a presidential contest, according to early polling. Democrats now fear they are losing their access to a network that has been instrumental in past elections in aggressively reporting on Trump’s immigration policies and their effect on Latino viewers.
“The new ownership is essentially co-opting and kidnapping the soul and mission of what Univision has been up to now, and they are serving it up on a silver platter to Donald Trump,” said Maria Cardona, a political consultant and member of the Democratic National Committee. “It is going to mask the pernicious and dangerous politics that Donald Trump is going to implement if he becomes president again.”
Semafor first reported the presence of three executives at the Nov. 7 interview — TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis as well as TelevisaUnivision Mexico co-CEOs Alfonso de Angoitia Noriega and Bernardo Gomez Martinez. Puck first reported the cancellation of ads and of the Biden official response to Trump’s interview.
The Biden and Trump campaigns declined to comment for this article.
Over multiple campaign cycles, Univision’s news division has long fostered a reputation for challenging power with abrasive questions. As a result, Republicans have largely steered clear of its airwaves.
The network’s most famous journalist, Jorge Ramos, came to work in the United States after quitting at Televisa in Mexico, where he said he was not allowed to report on criticism of the government. Since then, he has built a reputation by challenging powerful people and rejecting the deferential approach to political journalism.
Ramos was deported from Venezuela in 2019 after confronting President Nicolás Maduro about the suffering in his country. He demanded that Hillary Clinton state in a 2016 debate whether she would continue deporting children if she became president. When Ramos confronted Trump in 2015 about Latino concerns over his immigration rhetoric at a news conference, Trump security escorted him out of the room.
“Go back to Univision,” Trump said.
The network later backed out of a contract with Trump’s company to air the Miss Universe contest, leading to a lawsuit that was settled out of court in 2016.
At the time, Univision was chaired by Haim Saban, a major donor to Hillary Clinton who no longer chairs the company. Clinton campaign emails, which U.S. officials say Russian intelligence officers hacked in 2016, revealed that Saban had suggested a meeting between a senior Clinton campaign official and a Univision news executive at the start of her campaign.
People familiar with the situation inside Univision described alarm and discomfort in the newsroom last week about corporate’s role setting up the Trump interview, the selection of the interviewer and the decision to shut out Biden’s response.
Kushner, who has been minimally involved with Trump’s current campaign, surprised some Trump advisers by helping to broker the Univision interview, according to people familiar with the process. Kushner has a long working relationship with one of the executives who went to Mar-a-Lago, Gomez, a political player in Mexico who, the Associated Press reported, hosted a 2019 dinner at his home in Mexico City with Kushner and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Trump’s team thinks they can win a larger portion of the Hispanic and Latino vote in 2024 than he did in 2020, and he often brags privately about how his numbers with minorities were better than other GOP candidates, including Mitt Romney.
“This is Latin American stuff. This is the way people in Latin America deal with power,” said the person familiar with the situation inside Univision about the Trump interview, after requesting anonymity to describe internal conversations. “It certainly is a repudiation of the example Jorge Ramos has set.”
When Donald Trump ran for reelection in 2020, his campaign called Univision, the nation’s most influential Spanish-language network, “a leftist propaganda machine and a mouthpiece of the Democrat Party.”
“We shall treat them accordingly,” top advisers promised.
Three years later, Trump is treating Univision and its new corporate owners like long-lost friends. He hosted a trio of its executives at Mar-a-Lago last week during an hour-long Univision interview that was notable for its gracious tone, starting with a question about how well he is doing among Latino voters in early general election polling.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, a friend of one of the executives, helped arrange the interview and was also in the room, according to multiple people familiar with the event.
“All you have to do is look at the owners of Univision. They’re unbelievable entrepreneurial people, and they like me,” Trump said in response to the question about Latino voters.
The reversal has shocked Democrats — who are preparing a massive ad campaign to brand Trump as hostile to Latino interests — and some journalists inside Univision, who think that the past week has demonstrated the heavy hand of their new corporate bosses. The Mexican media company Grupo Televisa, which has long fostered a close relationship with Mexican political leaders, merged with Univision in 2021.
The Democratic alarm further spiked two days later, when Univision advertising representatives told the Biden campaign that spots already purchased to run during the Trump interview in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida had been canceled — owing to a heretofore unannounced policy about opposition advertising in single-candidate interviews.
Univision also canceled a booking with Biden’s Hispanic Media Director Maca Casado to respond to the Trump interview after it aired on the network’s late news broadcast, according to people familiar with the details, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity for this article because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Not since 2004, when former president George W. Bush outperformed expectations among Latino voters, has the Spanish-speaking population been so up for grabs in a presidential contest, according to early polling. Democrats now fear they are losing their access to a network that has been instrumental in past elections in aggressively reporting on Trump’s immigration policies and their effect on Latino viewers.
“The new ownership is essentially co-opting and kidnapping the soul and mission of what Univision has been up to now, and they are serving it up on a silver platter to Donald Trump,” said Maria Cardona, a political consultant and member of the Democratic National Committee. “It is going to mask the pernicious and dangerous politics that Donald Trump is going to implement if he becomes president again.”
Semafor first reported the presence of three executives at the Nov. 7 interview — TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis as well as TelevisaUnivision Mexico co-CEOs Alfonso de Angoitia Noriega and Bernardo Gomez Martinez. Puck first reported the cancellation of ads and of the Biden official response to Trump’s interview.
The Biden and Trump campaigns declined to comment for this article.
Over multiple campaign cycles, Univision’s news division has long fostered a reputation for challenging power with abrasive questions. As a result, Republicans have largely steered clear of its airwaves.
The network’s most famous journalist, Jorge Ramos, came to work in the United States after quitting at Televisa in Mexico, where he said he was not allowed to report on criticism of the government. Since then, he has built a reputation by challenging powerful people and rejecting the deferential approach to political journalism.
Ramos was deported from Venezuela in 2019 after confronting President Nicolás Maduro about the suffering in his country. He demanded that Hillary Clinton state in a 2016 debate whether she would continue deporting children if she became president. When Ramos confronted Trump in 2015 about Latino concerns over his immigration rhetoric at a news conference, Trump security escorted him out of the room.
“Go back to Univision,” Trump said.
The network later backed out of a contract with Trump’s company to air the Miss Universe contest, leading to a lawsuit that was settled out of court in 2016.
At the time, Univision was chaired by Haim Saban, a major donor to Hillary Clinton who no longer chairs the company. Clinton campaign emails, which U.S. officials say Russian intelligence officers hacked in 2016, revealed that Saban had suggested a meeting between a senior Clinton campaign official and a Univision news executive at the start of her campaign.
People familiar with the situation inside Univision described alarm and discomfort in the newsroom last week about corporate’s role setting up the Trump interview, the selection of the interviewer and the decision to shut out Biden’s response.
Kushner, who has been minimally involved with Trump’s current campaign, surprised some Trump advisers by helping to broker the Univision interview, according to people familiar with the process. Kushner has a long working relationship with one of the executives who went to Mar-a-Lago, Gomez, a political player in Mexico who, the Associated Press reported, hosted a 2019 dinner at his home in Mexico City with Kushner and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Trump’s team thinks they can win a larger portion of the Hispanic and Latino vote in 2024 than he did in 2020, and he often brags privately about how his numbers with minorities were better than other GOP candidates, including Mitt Romney.
“This is Latin American stuff. This is the way people in Latin America deal with power,” said the person familiar with the situation inside Univision about the Trump interview, after requesting anonymity to describe internal conversations. “It certainly is a repudiation of the example Jorge Ramos has set.”
9 comments:
Just like so many local Mexicans saying they are Republicans!
Out every sonofabitch, Juan!!!
People need to educate their friends about Trump. Trump is only doing for Trump. He might throw the bone in the steak but the steak is his.
The Univicion people sold themselves for a taco. Like most Spanish speakers estan hambriados. Seriously you need to ask yourself what is in it for them? For example how many times have Mexican leaders sold their country to enrich themselves?
This election will be up to the media savvy young adults. People past 452-23-2275 are too old to make a difference.
Go and fuck yourself!
As if the biased media ever asked Obama and Biden any tough questions. Ask Hispanics if they were better off during Trump's presidency compared to Biden.
León Krauze, un veterano presentador de noticias de Univisión y su estación de televisión de Los Ángeles, renunció luego de la reciente entrevista de la cadena en español con el expresidente Donald Trump.
“Después de trece gratificantes años, mi viaje con Univision Noticias concluyó ayer”, escribió Krauze wrote el miércoles en la plataforma de redes sociales X (antes Twitter). “Ha sido un absoluto honor y privilegio ser parte de este equipo excepcional de profesionales del periodismo”.
La declaración de Krauze no dio ningún motivo de su salida.
(dicen que se avergonzo, el vato)
Mayra Flores was given 6 million dollars by the Republican party to win a south Texas district but was sand blasted and destroyed by Vicente "Con la Gente". She now reemerges from the bottom crust of an uncleaned comal to ask for 11 million dollars to run again, which the GOP will provide. She and her shady pastor remain on the payroll as well as family members with questionable titles. Aside from accomplishing nothing while in office, she voted against everything, and is now a shotgun passenger on the gravy train provided by the GOP while screaming corruption to all excluding herself and her shady pastor. You so called republicans need to do your homework on this one before you start tooting her horn. One could describe her as the George Santos of South Texas, an imposter!
- Jorge Washington
Thank you Univision for breaking away from the fake media. I guess their corporate officers can tell the difference between a winner and a loser.
They need to also buy Telemundo so they can fire Dalila Cachetes de marrana flaca Garza. Lying bitch.
SAVE AMERICA BUT FROM TRUMP!!!
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