Politico
By Hadas Gold
March 10, 2016
Many
Republicans view Univision as a hostile news organization, with its
unapologetic pro-immigration reform stance and ties to Hillary Clinton.
But
on Wednesday night the network's two top anchors, Jorge Ramos and Maria
Elena Salinas, along with Washington Post correspondent Karen Tumulty,
tried to shed that image, while also previewing
what a potential general election debate might look like between
Clinton and Donald Trump.
"Secretary
Clinton, I want to disclose once again that my daughter Paula works for
your campaign," Ramos said in his first question of the night before
launching into a question about Clinton's
use of a private email server.
"When
you were secretary of state, you wrote 104 e-mails in your private
server that the government now says contained classified information,
according to The Washington Post analysis. That
goes against a memo that you personally sent to your employees in 2011
directing all of them to use official e-mail, precisely because of the
concerns. So it seems you issued one set of rules for yourself and a
different set of rules for the rest of the State
Department. So who specifically gave you permission to operate your
e-mail system as you did? Was it President Barack Obama? And would you
drop out of the race if you get indicted?"
Clinton
gave the same answer she's been giving on her email use, which wasn't
satisfactory for Ramos. He pressed Clinton to actually answer his
questions, leading to one of the more memorable
lines of the night in response to whether Clinton would drop out if she
was indicted over her email use.
"Oh, that's not going to happen. I'm not even answering that question," she said.
Later
on, the moderators played a clip of Sanders from 1985 where Sanders
praised Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, comments Sanders said he made in
the larger context of denouncing President
Ronald Reagan's interventionist foreign policy.
"Everyone
was totally convinced Castro was the worst guy in the world. They
forgot that he educated their kids, gave them health care and totally
transformed their society," Sanders says
in the clip.
"Senator,
in retrospect, have you ever regretted the characterizations of Daniel
Ortega and Fidel Castro you made in 1985?" Ramos asked.
Sanders
said while he recognizes Cuba is an authoritarian regime, the United
States shouldn't be involved in trying to overthrow governments.
"Whatever
you think of the question, at least the moderators are following up,
which is missing from most debates," tweeted Washington Post reporter
Aaron Blake.
That's
not to say the praise was universal. There were some production issues
such as the translators' English dubbing not being loud enough to cover
the moderators speaking in Spanish. Sanders'
microphone at one point was cutting in and out. And others were
disappointed that the moderators kept such strict tabs on the time and
quickly moved on from topics.
"Don't
understand why moderators would insist on moving past a fierce
engagement between candidates on a critical dispute in Dem politics,"
tweeted New York Times reporter Alex Burns as the
moderators switched from a question on the Export/Import bank to a
question about Benghazi.
For
Univision, the debate proved they could be tough on Democrats as well
as Republicans, while providing a glimpse at the kinds of questions that
might surface in a Clinton-Trump debate.
"Secretary
Clinton, you recently said, instead of building walls we need to tear
down barriers. However, last November in New Hampshire, you openly said
that as senator you voted numerous
times to build the wall with Mexico. What's the difference between what
you did, voting to build the wall, and what Donald Trump wants to do
now?" Salinas asked.
"Looks
like Univision gets its coveted "We're Hard On Both Sides!" media badge
so they're free to unload on Trump in the general," tweeted former
President Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau.
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