In the epic multi-part battle on Tuesday night that social media and every cable news outlet were talking about, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sparred with Fusion/Univision anchor Jorge Ramos over illegal immigration with Ramos being removed then allowed back into a press conference prior to a campaign rally in Iowa.
The first round of the three-part battle began when Ramos started shouting at Trump without being called upon that he had “a question about immigration” to which Trump repeated told to “[s]it down” before Ramos whined: “I have the right to ask a question.”
Along with telling Ramos that he didn’t have such a mandate because “[y]ou haven’t been called” on, Trump suggested that the liberal anchor “[g]o back to Univision” where he came from.
When Ramos shot back that Trump “cannot deport 11 million people,” “erect a 1,900 mile wall” and “deny citizenship to children in this country,” it became evident that Trump had enough (for the time being). It was then that a security guard approached Ramos and gently pushed him in the direction of the doorway as he again shouted that he supposedly had “the right to ask questions.”
The situation grew even more bizarre about 15 minutes later when Ramos reappeared and Trump chose to actually call on him, telling him that it was “[g]ood to have you back.” Quickly, the intensity ratcheted up when Ramos lectured to Trump that “your immigration plan” is “full of empty promises” and rehashed his points from the prior go around.
Trump responded by presenting a hypothetical situation regarding an “anchor baby” and claimed that “some of the greatest legal scholars” support his argument that changing birthright citizenship only requires an act of Congress (while Ramos shouted that it would instead require a change to the Constitution).
Moments later in round two, Ramos circled back to his plan to deport 11 million illegal immigrants as Trump maintained that he’d remove them “in a very humane fashion” and to trust him since “I have a bigger heart than you do.”
In another noteworthy portion, Trump reminded Ramos that he should use the term “illegal immigrant” to describe someone in the U.S. illegally, but Ramos was not having any of it and responded that he hasn’t used that word since “[n]o human being is illegal.” To fire back at the liberal Hispanic anchor, Trump explained:
TRUMP: No, well, when they cross the border from an illegal standpoint, they are illegal immigrant when they don’t have their papers and I want to make it possible – this is the part you're going to like. I want these people, the good people, I want them to come back and I want them to get documentation so they become legal.
RAMOS: How are you going to deport them?
TRUMP: You know what it's called? Management. You know, you're not used to good management because you're always talking about government.
RAMOS: Just imagine –
TRUMP: Let me just tell you, wait, wait, wait, wait, government is incompetent. Guys like Bush and some others that I won't name, they’re incompetent people. They don't have it. They don't have it.
Shortly thereafter, Trump moved onto other reporters, but came back to Ramos after only a roughly six-minute reprieve. This time, Ramos came armed to debate Trump on his chances of winning “the Latino vote” and tried to repeatedly cite a Univision poll that 75 percent of Latinos have an unfavorable opinion of the billionaire.
Before Ramos could get very far, Trump was again interrupting him, shifting focus to his multi-million dollar lawsuit against employer Univision and how he’s employed “thousands” of Hispanics of “love me.”
When Ramos relented and stated that he had seen a Nevada poll about Trump standing among Latinos, Trump declared that Ramos is “an honest guy” after all and ended the three-round face-off by telling the activist anchor that: “Okay, you and I will talk. We’ll have plenty – we're going be talking a lot over the years.”
