As the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court draws ever closer to Senate confirmation, it is important to note that the nation’s leading Spanish-language network has severely underreported the current court-packing debate. The only reasonable explanation for such coverage is a Supreme Court packed by Democrats is also in Univision’s best business interests.
There has been no discussion of the issue whatsoever, except to elicit this response from the Sandinista mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio (click "Expand" to view transcript):
JORGE RAMOS: You openly support Vice President Biden for the White House. And this is what happened on Thursday during a town hall meeting.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: If they vote and before the election, you are open to expanding the court?.
JOE BIDEN: I'm open to considering what happens from that point on.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You said so many times during the campaign, all through the course of your career, it's important to level…
BIDEN: It is, but George, if I say, no matter what answer I gave you. If I say it, that's the headline tomorrow. It won't be about what's going on now. The improper way they're proceeding.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But don't voters have a right to know where you stand.
BIDEN: They do have a right to know where I stand. I have a right to know where I stand before they vote.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you'll come out with a clear position before Election Day?.
BIDEN: Yes. Depending on how they handle this.
RAMOS: Mayor, do you think Biden is making a mistake by not answering that question?
BILL DE BLASIO: No, I think he's actually being very methodical. Jorge look, if the right thing happens and the Senate does not act or cannot put together the votes and the people actually get to decide in an election that's just a few weeks away. There's no reason then to have, in my opinion, a discussion about increasing the Supreme Court. If we can have a fair process to choose the next justice, we can leave the court with the same numbers it has. But if instead, the Republican majority violates any sense of decency and democracy and forces through this nomination, and now we have a Supreme Court that is unrepresentative of our democratic process, well, then it's a very valid idea to say we should consider adding justices. So, I think the vice president saying, you know what, if Barrett doesn't go through, different discussion, but if she does, then we have to think about adding justices.
Ramos then moves on to polling, and to whether there could be a repeat of 2016. In other words, de Blasio was able to speak freely on the issue with no pushback or Republican counterpoint. Ramos had a subsequent segment with a Republican, Adolfo Franco, but their segment was spent squabbling over immigration and court-packing never came up.
Franco would have, in all likelihood, rebutted de Blasio’s demagoguery of the Supreme Court, and pointed out the constitutionality of Barrett’s nomination. This omission, therefore, strikes us as intentional.
As we’ve previously mentioned, Univision stands to benefit from a packed court. An expanded Supreme Court with added liberal justices can be relied upon to hand down rulings favorable to Univision’s interests on immigration (such as DACA or DAPA), as well as on the rest of the liberal policy pu-pu platter such as abortion, gun control, or issues related to the free exercise of religion.
To present de Blasio’s take without any other offset or pushback is in fact an editorial decision. Univision wants a packed court.
Click here to read Media Research Center Founder and President L. Bozell III’s letter to the FCC in strong opposition to the proposed rule change that would allow Univision to be 100% foreign-owned.
Click "Expand" to view the full transcript of Bill de Blasio’s interview on Univision’s Al Punto as aired on Sunday, October 18th, 2020:
JORGE RAMOS: Mayor de Blasio, thank you for returning to 'Al Punto.' Are you concerned about a second wave of coronavirus in New York City? What went wrong? Do you think that you opened schools and restaurants too soon?
BILL DE BLASIO: No. You know Jorge I'm very concerned about a second way. Let me just be very clear. The job right now is to stop a full-blown second wave from hitting New York City. And I do believe we can do it. In fact, we saw very steady progress months where our level of coronavirus is very, very low. We have a specific set of neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens where we have a problem. But I truly believe we can stop that over the next few weeks and turn it around. So, no, I think the broader strategy has worked. But when we see an outbreak anywhere locally, we have to address it very aggressively.
JORGE RAMOS: Can you identify the problem? Is it the schools?
BILL DE BLASIO: No, I think what happened here is fatigue certainly played a role that in some communities, in particular, you know, there was a sense of hoping the crisis was over and sort of a wishful thinking set in. And unfortunately, that led people to let down their guard, gather in two large numbers. Once that was identified, we were able to go in very aggressively, more testing, more masks, more enforcement, unfortunately, became necessary to also put some restrictions in place. But hopefully, those restrictions are just for a few weeks and then we get back on track.
JORGE RAMOS: I wonder if politics have something to do with this. There's definitely some tension between you and Governor Cuomo, who has the final word on what should be done in the city?
BILL DE BLASIO: Look, ultimately, because of the state of emergency, the state of New York and the governor have to make the final choice. And we do communicate. I spoke to him this morning. We are always looking for a unified position. Doesn't always happen between a state and a city anywhere in this country. But generally, we have been on the same page. But when you mentioned the politics, I think there's another political reality. The message constantly coming from President Trump and his supporters telling people not to wear masks even in New York City that has had a negative impact in some parts of the city. That message, unfortunately, has held back our efforts to keep people safe.
JORGE RAMOS: Now, let me ask you a little bit about immigration. ICE agents identified themselves as police while arresting immigrants in the city. And ICE in a statement defended their agents saying that the word police is universally recognized. What happened here?
BILL DE BLASIO: Not only it is unacceptable, Jorge. I think it's illegal. I think what ICE has done violates the role they're supposed to play. I think it takes them outside any conceivable understanding of what an immigration agency should do. But I think it's purposeful from my point of view ICE has for a long time now operated as the political wing of the Trump campaign inside the government and has been trying to create division, trying to create conflict very visibly, visually. And in this case, they're trying to sow distrust between our immigrant communities and our police. You know that in New York City, for decades, our police forces have been very clear. We will not ask documentation status of anyone. We want maximum relationship between immigrant communities and police. So I think ICE is trying to poison the well and portray themselves as our police, but they're not our police. And we're going to take every measure we can to stop them.
JORGE RAMOS: You openly support Vice President Biden for the White House. And this is what happened on Thursday during a town hall meeting.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "If they vote and before the election, you are open to expanding the court?".
JOE BIDEN: "I'm open to considering what happens from that point on.”
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "You said so many times during the campaign, all through the course of your career, it's important to level…”
JOE BIDEN: "It is, but George, if I say, no matter what answer I gave you. If I say it, that's the headline tomorrow. It won't be about what's going on now. The improper way they're proceeding.".
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "But don't voters have a right to know where you stand".
JOE BIDEN: "They do have a right to know where I stand. I have a right to know where I stand before they vote.".
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "So you'll come out with a clear position before Election Day?".
JOE BIDEN: "Yes. Depending on how they handle this."
JORGE RAMOS: Mayor, do you think Biden is making a mistake by not answering that question?
BILL DE BLASIO: No, I think he's actually being very methodical. Jorge look, if the right thing happens and the Senate does not act or cannot put together the votes and the people actually get to decide in an election that's just a few weeks away. There's no reason then to have, in my opinion, a discussion about increasing the Supreme Court. If we can have a fair process to choose the next justice, we can leave the court with the same numbers it has. But if instead, the Republican majority violates any sense of decency and democracy and forces through this nomination, and now we have a Supreme Court that is unrepresentative of our democratic process, well, then it's a very valid idea to say we should consider adding justices. So, I think the vice president saying, you know what, if Barrett doesn't go through, different discussion, but if she does, then we have to think about adding justices.
JORGE RAMOS: Well, you've seen the polls and I've seen the polls and Biden is well ahead. But I was doing my homework and October 26, 2016, Major Hillary Clinton was 14 points ahead of Donald Trump. Are you concerned that pollsters are not recording the right thing and that the history might be repeated?
BILL DE BLASIO: I don't think history will be repeated Jorge but I do think we learned a lot that polling cannot capture emotion. It cannot capture what motivates people to turn out or not. It's a very imperfect instrument. What is different this time? Unfortunately, last time there was tremendous negativity towards both candidates. This time, I think there's actually a lot more goodwill towards Joe Biden. I think Hillary Clinton was often very unfairly treated in public life. Joe Biden has actually had a better experience, a more sympathetic history, if you will, in the way he's been treated publicly. So, I don't think you're going to see that sort of curveball of negativity towards both candidates skewing the outcome. I think the other thing is I've seen, I saw this last year when I was going all over the country, tremendous energy, enthusiasm among Democrats and progressives. Unusually high levels of energy and enthusiasm that just weren't there in 2016. I think people feel this is the most important election in our lifetimes. So, I think the turnout and the emotion will be there and the polling may even underestimate it.
JORGE RAMOS: Mayor de Blasio, thank you for being with us.
BILL DE BLASIO: Thank you so much
