It’s been more than a week since the Biden administration recently announced the construction of sections of border wall that would close the infamous “Yuma Gap” in southern Arizona. And the media’s most forceful opponent of anything resembling border enforcement, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, has yet to weigh in on the matter. The double standard is obvious.
This is the same Jorge Ramos, after all, that staged a confrontation with Donald Trump and bellowed, “you cannot build a 1900-mile wall”. Remember?
PETER MANSBRIDGE, CBC: Why did you make the decision that you had to go to Iowa to confront Donald Trump?
JORGE RAMOS, UNIVISION: As you know, television… television doesn't happen. Television is produced. It is created. And, so we brought three cameras, we brought microphones, and our purpose was to talk to Donald Trump. And confront Donald Trump. That was the purpose. As a journalist.
MANSBRIDGE: A confrontation.
RAMOS: I wanted to ask him a question- many questions, but (...) yes, it was going to be a confrontation.
...
MANSBRIDGE: You keep calling it questions, your “questions”, where in fact you didn’t ask a question. They’re statements, not questions.
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MANSBRIDGE: You can not deport 11 million people
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RAMOS: You can not deport 11 million… you can not deport 11 million people.
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MANSBRIDGE: You can not deport 11 million… you can not deport 11 million people
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RAMOS: You can not build a 1900-mile wall.
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MANSBRIDGE: You can not deny citizenship to children in this country.
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RAMOS: You can not deny citizenship to children in this country.
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RAMOS: I confronted him on the fact that he wants to deport 11 million people, and build a wall, and deny citizenship.
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RAMOS: We thought that in Dubuque, Iowa, there would be just a few journalists following the candidate. And we were right. So we showed up like two hours before, we brought three cameras, and then we made a plan. I was going to be wearing a microphone so my voice would be at the exact same level as his when we start editing
…
DONALD TRUMP: No, you haven't, you haven’t been called.
RAMOS: I have… I have the right to ask a question. And this is...no. And this is the question. You can not deport 11 million… you can not deport 11 million people. You can not build a 1900-mile wall. You can not deny citizenship to children in this country.
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RAMOS: Then we had the three cameras well-positioned, the lighting was right, and then I made a plan. (...) We planned everything.
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RAMOS: TV, television doesn't happen. You create it. You produce it. It doesn't happen just like that. And that’s exactly what we did. (...) We NEEDED TO CONFRONT HIM.
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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN: You wanted to get into a fight with him and you got your fight.
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RAMOS: We will be judged, as journalists, by how we responded to Donald Trump.
Lots of “questions”. Much confrontation. All premised on the idea that border enforcement, as represented by the wall, is both racist and ineffective. But there were also the opinion columns, which include such hits as:
- “Donald Trump’s Wall Is Totally Useless” (1/19/2017)
- “So Who’s Paying For The Wall?” (3/2/2016)
- “Trump’s Wall Is only In His Head” (2/1/2017)
- “A Wall Won’t Stop Drugs From Coming In” (7/22/2017)
- “Trump Is The Wall” (11/29/2018)
- “Trump Is The Wall” (Separate column- 1/9/2019)
- “The Myth Of The Perfect Wall” (1/30/2019)
- “The Country Itself Has Become The Wall…” (10/9/2019)
Jorge Ramos has spilled a great deal of ink bemoaning the idea of a border wall, and denouncing its construction as racist or useless or both. But where are the opinion columns now that Joe Biden is building a “useless” wall? There isn’t a single one. Crickets. Nothing. It is as if walls stopped being evil and useless as the clock struck noon on January 20th, 2021.
Ramos’ Trump-era gimmick was built on the idea of standing opposed to power, regardless of who was in power, and consistently asking tough questions. It was always a farce, much more so now that Donald Trump is out of office.
It is crystal clear that it absolutely matters who is in power. Jorge Ramos’ silence in the face of Joe Biden’s wall proves it.
