The nation’s leading Spanish-language network is up to its old tricks- this time, with a softball interview of Dr. Jill Biden on the day of a vote to allow impeachment investigations to proceed in the U.S. House of Representatives, in which she comes out in support of Twitter's ban on political advertising.
Two clips from the interview stand out. First, watch as the subject of Hunter Biden simply evaporated with a wave from Dr. Biden, and Despierta América anchor Satcha Pretto moves on to the next question with no follow up:
SATCHA PRETTO: Dr. Biden, Twitter announced, just a few hours ago, that they will ban all political advertising from their social media platform. And this is the result, in part, of a request made by former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign, due to a false advertisement on Facebook by President Trump's campaign. How will this affect former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign by (its) no longer being able to use that platform in order to disclose its political positions?
DR. JILL BIDEN: I think that this is right. These political bans ought to happen because they are lies. President Trump is lying about my husband, lying about my son, and that's not acceptable so yes, they should be banned.
PRETTO: Let's talk a bit about this campaign, "Todos con Biden", which seeks to capture the Hispanic vote. Tell us specifically, what do you want to do so that Latinos head to the polls and support former Vice President Joe Biden?
The campaign’s support for Twitter’s ban on political advertising was noteworthy on its own merit, in that Biden cited alleged lies about her husband and son as the rationale for support. And yet, Pretto made no effort to follow up with specifics on allegations about Hunter Biden.
This was also emblematic of domestic Spanish-language news coverage of the various allegations against Hunter Biden. Even now, he wasn’t mentioned by name. There are only unchallenged allegations of nonspecific lies that get waved off in order to get to the next question. But Univision’s audience deserved to know what the specifics of those allegations are.
Then, of course, Pretto obliged Biden by transitioning into the main piece of business on Univision: immigration. Watch as Dr. Biden clearly defined the campaign’s Hispanic engagement strategy, immigration pandering:
PRETTO: Now, then, Doctor: in this ad that we see with Spanish subtitles, we see that the former Vice President makes a huge reference to the contributions that Hispanics have made to the United States, as well as a special emphasis on that families should not be separated. However, during the past administration of President Obama where he served as Vice President (sic), that administration came to be considered as one that carried out a record number of deportations. In fact, the numbers reflect that during that term we saw a crisis along the southern border. If he were to return to the White House as president, what would former Vice President Biden do differently in order to deal with this crisis within the country?
BIDEN: Well, when Joe Biden is president you will no longer see this separation of families along the border. We welcome these families to enter into the United States. These are families (coming) in search of a better life. And that’s what the American Dream is all about. I believe that a Joe Biden campaign reflects the values of Hispanic families.
In this sense, the Biden approach is no different than that of Univision for 2020: maximalist immigration advocacy and pandering. As usual, the left (and their allies in the media) reduce an entire community to immigration supplicants, and promote the idea that the defense of “Hispanic Values” equates to maintaining an open border.
Interestingly enough, Univision helped Biden promote their “Todos con Biden” Hispanic engagement initiative yet maintained total radio silence last week on the campaign’s botched rollout, the Trump campaign’s purchase of the related domains (and subsequent redirection to Latinos for Trump) the only Spanish-language domestic network to give that story the blackout treatment.
This interview, a substance-free softball with little to no pushback, proves that Univision will be at least as vested in the 2020 Democratic nominee as it was in Hillary Clinton in 2016.
