Univision anchor Jorge Ramos's interview with Vice President Joe Biden, broadcast on Facebook Watch ahead of the Nevada caucuses, was neither lengthy nor wide-ranging. However, the interview demonstrated that border enforcement of any kind is a non-starter with Univision’s senior anchor.
Watch Biden’s reaction to Ramos’ deceptive characterization of his vote for the 2006 Secure Fence Act as being a vote “for a wall”:
RAMOS: In 2006 you voted for a fence at the border with Mexico. How is that any different than with the border- and with the wall that President Trump wants to build?
BIDEN: We’re talking about a fence versus a wall that he wants to build from sea to shining sea.
RAMOS: But you wanted a wall. You voted for a wall.
BIDEN: I voted- yeah, but it was a small portion of this. It wasn’t- look, there are certain places where it makes sense...
RAMOS: It’s part of the concept, Mr. Vice President. The concept of building a wall.
BIDEN: The con… you mean if you build any wall anywhere, including at points of legal embarcation that….that’s the same as what this guy is doing? C’mon, Jorge.
RAMOS: I’m asking you, I’m just asking you, what’s the…
BIDEN: You know what you’re asking me- you’re not making an honest comparison.
RAMOS: You...you voted for a fence and Trump wants a fence and a wall, too, right?
BIDEN: No, he wants to spend billions of dollars on it…
RAMOS: He does. He does.
When Ramos announced the interview on Twitter, my immediate reaction was to predict that he'd bury Biden- which he did ahead of an ever-critical Nevada caucus. In fact the first question out of the gate was on whether his campaign was collapsing, followed by contrasts on each of the remaining candidates.
When the interview inevitably shifted to immigration (10 of 21 minutes or 47%, consistent with the findings of MRC Latino's most recent study), Ramos pressed Biden to apologize both for the deportations that occurred during the Obama Administration, and for the children placed in cages. Biden’s admission of a mistake did not placate Ramos, who proceeded to secure a promise of a comprehensive immigration proposal during Biden’s first week in office.
The exchange on the Secure Fence Act is particularly telling because the statute doesn’t even call for fencing along the entire southern border. But to Ramos, “the concept” of any sort of structure along the border is offensive enough. Ramos’ likening of the Secure Fence Act to President Trump’s border enforcement policy, ahead of a Nevada Caucus against open-borders advocate Bernie Sanders, was a bridge too far for Biden, who called foul on Ramos.
The other “Latino issue” besides immigration? Two minutes on whether Biden supports the removal of Venezuelan tyrant Nicolas Maduro via U.S. military invasion. Otherwise, there wasn’t a single question on issues that Hispanics care about, like jobs, the economy, education, or healthcare.
Biden was right to sound off, given Ramos' previous soft-selling of "Democratic Socialism" and advocacy for pet policies such as the Green New Deal. One wonders, very briefly, whether Ramos' demagoguery leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of a man who in 2012 told African-Americans that Mitt Romney would "put y'all back in CHAAAIIINSSSSS". But very briefly, indeed.
To those who may take exception to our continued assertion that Univision conducts itself as would a liberal immigration-advocacy PAC with a broadcast license: quod erat demonstrandum.
