Univision News anchor and hardcore liberal Jorge Ramos appeared Tuesday night on CNN’s AC360 and FNC’s Hannity to discuss his brief detainment in Venezuela by the murderous Nicolas Maduro regime after he confronted Maduro in an interview with video of young men eating out of a garbage truck in Caracas.
In the case of Sean Hannity and Ramos, the pair have had their fair share of on-air duels about illegal immigration, but Hannity made clear that this was bigger than debating American politics and instead good versus evil.
“First of all, I'm glad you were out. I was nervous about what was happening. We disagree but I don't disagree on protecting all Americans whoever they are, wherever they are, and I said it last night and I mean it and I'm saying it to you personally,” Hannity explained.
Ramos thanked Hannity and stated that it helped knowing Fox News and the rest of the American press were behind the Univision crew while they were in captivity.
Hannity noted Ramos was simply confronting Maduro with “real videos of real Venezuelans and should be one of the richest countries in the entire world that are eating out of garbage trucks....and I applaud you for calling attention to the suffering of human beings” because “[t]his isn't politics to me.”
In between Hannity ripping socialism, Ramos stuck to the case of Venezuela (click “expand”):
It is terrible what is happening in Venezuela. There’s a humanitarian crisis. The minimum wage, Sean, is $5, not $5 an hour or $5 a day. $5 a month. That’s the minimum wage so, that is why they were so much hunger. We — I — the interview with Nicolas Maduro — it lasted about 17 minutes. I think it was a strong interview. It was — it was all right. But then I show him the kids that you just showed on a garbage truck and he just couldn't stand it.
(....)
What I saw in Venezuela is that the 20-year-old revolution, started with Hugo Chavez in 1999 has failed completely. You have more than three million that live in the country. Inflation is one million percent. If they pay one Bolivar today, it’ll be a million Bolivars in a year from now and people are dying. I went to a hospital, it was Hospital Vargas and then one woman, she had lost a family member and you know why? Because they didn't have $30 to pay for antibiotics. So the experiment in Venezuela have completely[.]
But what Ramos said next was perhaps the most profound thing he said in either interview, which was the fact that, despite his dislike of President Donald Trump, assaults on press freedoms like what took place in Venezuela don’t happen in America:
I really appreciate the freedom and the liberties that we have here in the United States. You know — we know that and I have my differences with President Trump but this is the difference. You criticize the President of the United States and I can go home and nothing happens to me, Sean. But if I criticize the dictator of Venezuela, they confiscate my cameras. They take my interviews.They detain me, and then they expel me from the country. Those are two big, big differences.
The interview went on as Hannity held up the Trump economy as the antithesis of socialism and the Obama economy and Ramos stuck to what he saw in Venezuela with the struggles of receiving basic medical care, the pair concluded on a lighter note (click “expand”)
HANNITY: I'm glad you’re out. Next time, we’re going to have another fight. So, you know, but we’ll —
RAMOS: We will have a fight. And, first, let me thank the U.S. Department, the State department and the American Embassy in Caracas. Thanks to them, I am here today in Miami.
HANNITY: Yeah. I think you just said I love Donald Trump and it’ll all over. It's all good. Welcome home.
RAMOS: Not today. Not today, Sean.
HANNITY: I understand. Alright, well, I'm glad you are out, thank you.
An hour earlier, Ramos’s CNN hit was not only shorter, but more straightforward as Ramos went through many of the same details about his detainment.
However, one important tidbit was how the Mexican and U.S. embassies helped assist in transporting Ramos and his crew with bodyguards to the airport to get out of Venezuela in the event of needing to stave off being kidnapped and being detained indefinitely (click “expand”):
[T]hanks to the U.S. Department and thanks to the American Embassy in Caracas and it's an American embassy, Anderson, because even though the relationship between Venezuela and the United States has been broken because of Maduro, the U.S. does not recognize Maduro as the real president, they recognize Juan Guido and so there's a U.S. Embassy and they helped us into vehicles with bodyguards and the Mexican embassy in Caracas with an extra vehicle to go all the way safely from the hotel to the airport. It was — it was — it was a difficult moment because we didn't know what could happen. It's a dictatorship, so they can do anything they want and we were concerned that, at the airport — at some point during our journey that they could have kidnapped us or kept us in the country without our permission, obviously.
To see the relevant transcript from FNC’s Hannity on February 26, click “expand.”
FNC’s Hannity
February 26, 2019
9:47 p.m. EasternSEAN HANNITY: Alright, as we continue from Hanoi in Vietnam, well, yesterday, Jorge Ramos and Univision staffers — they were detained at the presidential palace in Venezuela after an interview with Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Apparently, Maduro didn't like the questions that were asked and ended the interview when Jorge Ramos showed him this video of hungry Venezuelans eating out of a garbage truck. After being held for three hours, the group was thankfully released. Univision News anchor Jorge Ramos joins us now. First of all, I'm glad you were out. I was nervous about what was happening.
JORGE RAMOS: I know, Sean. Thank you.
HANNITY: We disagree but I don't disagree on protecting all Americans whoever they are, wherever they are, and I said it last night and I mean it and I'm saying it to you personally.
RAMOS: And I want to thank you, Sean, I know we have many differences on immigration and put their differences aside because when I need the support the most, I am sure you were talking about us Venezuela and that was incredibly important. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much Sean, thank so much to Fox News because on those moments who are detained that dictatorship, when there is no one to help you and you see a tweet or you see a report from Fox News or from an American media, you know that you are not alone and we felt we were not alone. So mucho gracias.
HANNITY: Listen, moi bien. I’m not great with mine. I studied it in school three years, but it’s not great, Jorge. Tell everybody what happened because they took your tapes. By the way, those are real videos of real Venezuelans and should be one of the richest countries in the entire world that are eating out of garbage trucks and that is widespread and I applaud you for calling attention to the suffering of human beings. This isn't politics to me.
RAMOS: It is terrible what is happening in Venezuela. There’s a humanitarian crisis. The minimum wage, Sean, is $5, not $5 an hour or $5 a day. $5 a month. That’s the minimum wage so, that is why they were so much hunger. We — I — the interview with Nicolas Maduro — it lasted about 17 minutes. I think it was a strong interview. It was — it was all right. But then I show him the kids that you just showed on a garbage truck and he just couldn't stand it. He stood up. He tried to cover the — the image so the cameras wouldn’t be able to see it and then I told him, “Mr. Maduro,” I didn't call him “President” — I call him “Mr. Maduro, what are you doing? Why don't you answer the questions? What you are doing is what dictators do.” And then — and he left and one of his ministers came back and compensated for cameras, Sean. They took our tape cards where we actually store the interviews and then they detained us for two hours. They took away our cell phones and at this point, at this point, we don't have the cameras. We don't have the interview and they gave my cell back although my cell phones from my colleagues, they’re still in Venezuela.
HANNITY: You know, we are having a debate in this country and everyone knows we have a well-documented disagreement on immigration and border security and American sovereignty and American law. We’ll put that aside, but I look at a country like Venezuela. All the grandiose promises, we will take care of everything, we’ll do everything government, socialism. It fails, and I'm just curious, as you see these arguments being made in our country about 70 percent tax rates, marginal rates, guaranteed education, health care, job security, everything, college. I am wondering if you see the dangers as I do, and how socialism does almost universally lead to poverty and false promises.
RAMOS: What I saw in Venezuela is that the 20-year-old revolution, started with Hugo Chavez in 1999 has failed completely. You have more than three million that live in the country. Inflation is one million percent. If they pay one Bolivar today, it’ll be a million Bolivars in a year from now and people are dying. I went to a hospital, it was Hospital Vargas and then one woman, she had lost a family member and you know why? Because they didn't have $30 to pay for antibiotics. So the experiment in Venezuela have completely and you know something? I — I really appreciate the freedom and the liberties that we have here in the United States. You know — we know that and I have my differences with president trump but this is the difference. You criticize the President of the United States and I can go home and nothing happens to me, Sean. But if I criticize —
HANNITY: Yeah.
RAMOS: — the dictator of Venezuela, they confiscate my cameras. They take my interviews.
HANNITY: It’s terrible.
RAMOS: They detain me, and then they expel me from the country. Those are two big, big differences.
HANNITY: The last thing I’ll add and this is a political point that I will make, Obama, eight years 13 million more Americans on food stamps. Eight million more in poverty. ObamaCare, millions lost their doctors, their plans, they have one option and everybody paid more. Those are the false promises I think of socialism and the danger and under Donald Trump, look at this. Record low unemployment for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, women in the workplace and I come from very blue-collar roots. I want the forgotten men and women in this country and frankly, the world to have blessings of freedoms that we take for granted as I can see in Vietnam, a lot of poverty.
RAMOS: And I understand your political point and if you would allow me in this case, especially for this interview, Sean —
HANNITY: We got about 25 seconds.
RAMOS: — I’ll concentrate on what I saw in Venezuela. And health care in Venezuela, the socialist in Venezuela is terrible. I saw this woman who just didn't have enough money for antibiotics.
HANNITY: Sad.
RAMOS: I saw a family who’s five-year-old Christian is dying because they couldn't do a blood test in the hospital so they took his blood in a tube and they put it in a — in a glass with ice and they had to take it to another place and the boy will most likely die very soon because they don't have enough medicine and that's what happened with that revolution, the Venezuela revolution right now with Nicolas Maduro.
HANNITY: We may disagree on immigration very strongly, but we agree on humanitarian issues.
RAMOS: We do.
HANNITY: And the — and poverty and what has happened there. I'm glad you’re out. Next time, we’re going to have another fight. So, you know, but we’ll —
RAMOS: We will have a fight. And, first, let me thank the U.S. Department, the State department and the American Embassy in Caracas. Thanks to them, I am here today in Miami.
HANNITY: Yeah. I think you just said I love Donald Trump and it’ll all over. It's all good. Welcome home.
RAMOS: Not today. Not today, Sean.
HANNITY: I understand. Alright, well, I'm glad you are out, thank you.
To see the relevant transcript from CNN’s AC360 on February 26, click “expand.”
CNN’s AC360
February 26, 2019
8:56 p.m. EasternANDERSON COOPER: Well, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos and his crew were detained against their will at the Venezuelan presidential palace in Caracas last night not long after they began an interview with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Ramos said Maduro got up from the interview after he was shown a video shot by Univision, or actually shot by Jorge of some young people eating out of a garbage truck. Ramos said his team was put in a security room and the lights were turned off. I spoke to him for his first interview just before air time. [TAPED INTERVIEW] Jorge, you’ve just gotten back to the United States after being detained in Venezuela and then basically removed from the country. Explain what happened when you sat down with — with Maduro.
JORGE RAMOS: I started the interview with Nicolas Maduro asking him if he was a president or a dictator. He just didn't like that and then the interview went on for about 17 minutes. It was a contentious interview, I have to admit. Hopefully tough questions. That’s what I thought and then he was saying that the revolution — the Venezuelan revolution had been a success. I told him that was not the case and I show him on my iPad three kids were behind a trash truck eating the trash and he just — he —
COOPER: And that's video you shot yourself or your crew shot.
RAMOS: Exactly. The day — the day before with my cell phone. We were driving through Caracas and I saw these three kids incredibly hungry. They were eating trash and then I asked them what's happening? Why? Why are you doing that? And they told me we are very hungry and Nicolas Maduro is responsible and we need a new president. So when I was doing the interview, I just show Nicolas Maduro what had happened and he just couldn't take it. He broke. He stood up. He tried to cover the image and then he said the interview is over and I told Nicolas Maduro: What do you say? Why don't you just simply answer the question? This is what dictators do and then — and then he left. And they confiscated our four cameras — the video cards for the interviews were kept and a few minutes later, they confiscated our cell phones. We were detained for two hours. Some agents and body guards put me in a little room, in a dark room and they forcefully took my backpack and my cell phone and this was happening in Venezuela. So he didn't like the interview. So they took our cameras, our video. They detained us for two hours and then they expelled me this morning from Venezuela.
COOPER: Was it — was it Venezuela government or U.S. officials or Mexican officials or —
RAMOS: No. Yeah. Venezuelan agents were outside of the hotel the whole night so nobody could come in and we couldn't — we couldn’t leave. They wanted to make sure that we were going to go directly to the airport. We were deported actually from Venezuela and this is really interesting, thanks to the U.S. Department and thanks to the American Embassy in Caracas and it's an American embassy, Anderson, because even though the relationship between Venezuela and the United States has been broken because of Maduro, the U.S. does not recognize Maduro as the real president, they recognize Juan Guido and so there's a U.S. Embassy and they helped us into vehicles with bodyguards and the Mexican embassy in Caracas with an extra vehicle to go all the way safely from the hotel to the airport. It was — it was — it was a difficult moment because we didn't know what could happen. It's a dictatorship, so they can do anything they want and we were concerned that, at the airport — at some point during our journey that they could have kidnapped us or kept us in the country without our permission, obviously.
COOPER: Yeah. Well, I'm glad you and your crew are back and safe but obviously your thoughts and our thoughts are with the people left behind.
RAMOS: Absolutely.
COOPER: And the struggle that is going on there. Jorge Ramos. Thank you so much.
RAMOS: Thank you Anderson.
