As if anyone needed more evidence that Jorge Ramos has become journalistically incapacitated as a result of his rabid anti-Trump activism, along comes a new weekly podcast hosted by the veteran Univision news anchor that reveals just how severe is his case of Trump derangement syndrome.
The title of Ramos' new weekly online show is Contrapoder ("Against Power"), and the debut program featured a 17-minute interview with Puerto Rico's Governor that is solely dedicated, in Ramos words, to asking the Governor "why he doesn't criticize Donald Trump."
The program is painful to listen to, as Ramos subjects 38-year-old Governor Ricardo "Ricky" Rosselló to a barrage of every possible variation of the same question. Don't believe us? Here's a selection, in order, transcribed below:
JORGE RAMOS, HOST, CONTRAPODER, UNIVISION: They accuse you of being servile to Donald Trump, of being very soft...why do you not respond tougher to President Donald Trump?
...You have never called Donald Trump a racist. Why?
...Does it not seem to you, Governor, that it was a lack of respect for President Donald Trump to throw paper towels at the victims of the hurricane? Is that not a lack of respect? And why did you not come out to defend those Puerto Ricans? Is that not a lack of respect, Governor?
Despite being a Democrat, the young Governor steadfastly refused to participate in Ramos' determined smear campaign against President Trump, and even smacked the anchor down when Ramos went so far as to claim that the President does not consider what happened in Puerto Rico to be a real catastrophe.
JORGE RAMOS, HOST, CONTRAPODER, UNIVISION: When President Trump says that the real catastrophe was what happened in Katrina and not in Puerto Rico, why did you not defend the Puerto Ricans? Why didn't you tell him, 'Mr. President, that is not correct?' For many, you are very subservient.
RICARDO ''RICKY'' ROSSELLO, GOVERNOR OF PUERTO RICO: Well, because he didn't say that the real catastrophe was one, and not in Puerto Rico. He spoke of the Katrina catastrophe, right, and what we have always asked the President, after expressions or a twitter issue, is clarity. Does the President recognize that this is a disaster? Yes. I flew over the island with him and he could see that there are hundreds of thousands of homes in Puerto Rico that are destroyed, and he recognized that in the conversations we had and afterwards.
But Ramos wasn't the only one Rosselló smacked down. He also took San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz to task for the patently ridiculous statement, fed to him through Ramos, in which she said that "the real catastrophe has been the expressions of President Donald Trump."
RICARDO ''RICKY'' ROSSELLO, GOVERNOR OF PUERTO RICO: This is real simple. I am here to get results, right? Not to focus on what is being said or talked about. I've now just heard an expression where it is said, by the Mayor of San Juan, that the real catastrophe is what Donald Trump is saying, when every day what we are seeing is that the real catastrophe is what happened here in Puerto Rico. It's a hurricane. It's caused massive damage. That's what we have to focus on.
But even after two back-to-back smackdowns, Ramos' harangue was far from over. The same line of questioning continued:
JORGE RAMOS, HOST, CONTRAPODER, UNIVISION: Why do you continue treating Donald Trump so well?
...Is there not racism in the way that Donald Trump has treated you (Puerto Ricans), Governor?
...Puerto Ricans keep dying, and despite all this your attitude with Donald Trump is still the same. Due to the lack of aid, Governor. Because the aid they need has not arrived. In other words, the deaths and the wounded are because of the lack of aid that the government of Donald Trump has not provided in time.
Here again, Rosselló responded that though the island's main airports and seaports were closed in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, within a few days "the aid began to rapidly arrive...to say that aid hasn't been being brought simply is not correct."
Ramos then promptly turned to President Trump's October 12 tweet, made within the frequently unmentioned context of Sharyl Attkisson's Full Measure segment on how Puerto Rico's ability to withstand and respond to the impact of Hurricane María was severely handicapped as a result of years of corruption and chronic mismanagement of public resources.
Commenting on an online publicity promo in advance of Attkisson's incisive segment on the subject, in a succession of tweets the President noted that Puerto Rico's infrastructure was already "a disaster before the hurricanes" and that "Congress to decide how much to spend." He then made the following matter-of-fact statement that was quickly projected by his detractors as a threat to cut aid to Puerto Rico, when he said "We cannot keep FEMA, the Military and First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!"
This is how Ramos' characterized the President's tweet:
JORGE RAMOS, HOST, CONTRAPODER, UNIVISION: What Donald Trump is now saying in his tweet is that he doesn't want to keep FEMA, the military and the first responders there...does that not bother you, Governor? Does it not bother you that the President say that?
Rosselló responded that upon seeing the tweet he contacted White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who assured him that the tweet did not constitute a threat to remove federal aid, either from FEMA, the military or first responders.
Rosselló went on to say: "If it were the case that Donald Trump is saying that Puerto Rico, that we have to take the aid out of Puerto Rico, and they confirmed it to me in the White House as an action item, I would be the first to be on all the television programs denouncing that...at the moment when help is not being given, or commtiments are being broken, I am going to be the first to say so."
Wrapping up and clearly disappointed with Rosselló for failing to align with his anti-Trump agenda, Ramos went on to say "in all these minutes we have been speaking, Governor, not even one criticism of Donald Trump."
"My style is not to criticize. My style is to act. My style is to get results," the Governor concluded.
