"The View's" Ana Navarro was once a dedicated Republican, but Donald Trump changed that. After years of speaking out against him, the Latina commentator questioned what was really going on with the Spanish network Univision.
“It was a ridiculous interview. It was embarrassing. It was an interview with no pushback,” Navarro blasted. “You would have thought they were interviewing Barney the dinosaur. It was a love fest.”
She attacked Trump for spending most of 2016 making it his mission "to insult, target, otherwise Latinos and Latin immigrants.”
“To see the largest network, the most important network in the Latino community — Univision — giving this man a one-hour platform where there was no push," she continued. "There were a ton of smiling faces. There were references by Donald Trump during the interview to his friends who were there, from Univision, Univision executives. It’s raised a lot of questions. I don’t know what the hell is going on in Univision, but I do think we need to talk about it. I do think we need to demand transparency and accountability from that very important and crucial network for the Latino community.”
She went on to say she was confused about anchor Enrique Acevedo, who she'd heard was a decent journalist. "It truly makes you wonder if there was some sort of order he was under to act that way.”
“Then we find out Jared Kushner is involved in all of this and has been having conversations and getting friendly and cozy with the Televisa executives,” Navarro explained.
She questioned whether the recently merged networks of Univision and Televisa were trying to befriend Trump so that if he wins in 2024, he might ease restrictions denying foreigners from having a majority stake in a U.S. network. There are rules in place that foreigners can't own a majority of a major U.S. network. There are many ways around it, as Rupert Murdoch did in 1985 when he gave up his Australian citizenship to meet the requirements.
“We are very worried about what a shift in ideology led by the folks from Mexican Televisa wanting to warm up to folks in America can mean for U.S. elections. So, this is the time to get active,” she ended.
When Donald Trump first announced his 2016 campaign, he accused Latino immigrants of being rapists and drug dealers. He claimed as they were coming into the United States, they brought "crime." In the wake of that, reporter Jorge Ramos hammered the candidate on the campaign trail about his opinions on immigration and other major issues that matter most to Latino families. At one point, he was banned from an event, and continued to sound the alarm about Trump hiding from Spanish-speaking media until the November election.
Son-in-law Jared Kushner organized a meeting with Univision executives at Mar-a-Lago, despite he and his wife, Ivanka, working to distance themselves from the Trump administration and campaign. Kushner reportedly knew one of the top brass, the Washington Post reported, and he joined in on the meeting.
Not long after, the network had its sit-down with Trump. At the same time, the network killed millions in advertising from Joe Biden's campaign, claiming an "unannounced policy about opposition advertising in single-candidate interviews," the Post said.
The backlash has been swift, with anger growing among Latino leaders. Actor and comedian John Leguizamo posted a video on Instagram Thursday night and called for a boycott of the network until it stops its rejection of Biden's ads.
“I am asking all my brothers and sisters who are actors, artists, politicians, activists to not go on Univision,” he said in a Spanish and English message.
Top anchor Leon Krauze resigned, though some have claimed it could have been more about layoffs than Trump. It's unclear why layoffs would begin with the top anchor, however.
See the video of Navaro below or at the link here.
