Once again, it’s Azteca America that takes the cake for the most consistently one-sided, over-the-top anti-Trump news coverage on U.S. Spanish-language television.
In the latest installment, timed for the one-year anniversary of the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign announcement speech, anchor Roberto Ruiz and Washington correspondent Armando Guzmán tag teamed to tell their viewers that the Republican hierarchy is hell-bent on teaming up with (in their view, monolithic) anti-Trump Hispanic and Muslim voting blocs to stop Trump. No, we’re not kidding.
ROBERTO RUIZ, ANCHOR, AZTECA AMERICA: …today not only Hispanics, but also Muslims fear the arrival of the magnate to the White House. Many Republicans also fear it. It’s Armando Guzman who tells us why.
ARMANDO GUZMAN, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, AZTECA AMERICA: Tomorrow will be June 16, the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s announcement for the Republican nomination for the presidency. He is celebrating. The hierarchy of the Republican Party is not celebrating. They are thinking how to rid themselves of Trump.
The only cited Republican source for Guzmán’s story is Dan Senor, a former Romney campaign adviser. Entirely missing was any reference to an actual party official, much less a high-ranked Republican elected official.
Guzmán also ignored the fact that one year after throwing his hat into the ring in one of the most crowded and heavyweight-filled Republican presidential candidate fields in history, Trump earned the nomination with the support of a record number of 13 million Republican voters.
In his report, Guzmán cites a recent Bloomberg poll that puts Trump at 37% versus 49% for Hillary Clinton. However, it only takes a look at the Real Clear Politics average to see that the referenced poll is somewhat of an outlier, with the average polling spread between the candidates being much closer.
From the looks of things, Ruiz and Guzmán seemed determined to give Jorge Ramos and Univision a run for the money in terms of who on any given day, on U.S. Spanish-language television news, will deliver the most one-sided anti-Trump version of the news.
Below is the transcript of the referenced portions of the report, which aired during the June 15 edition of Azteca America’s Hechos Nacional Tarde.
AZTECA AMERICA
HECHOS NACIONAL TARDE
6/15/16
6:43:23 PM - 6:46:07 PM EST | 2 MIN 43 SEC
ROBERTO RUIZ, PRESENTER, AZTECA AMERICA: … today not only Hispanics, but also Muslims fear the arrival of the magnate to the White House. Many Republicans also fear it. It’s Armando Guzman who tells us why.
ARMANDO GUZMAN, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, AZTECA AMERICA: Tomorrow will be June 16, the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s announcement for the Republican nomination for the presidency. He is celebrating. The hierarchy of the Republican Party is not celebrating. They are thinking how to rid themselves of Trump.
ARMANDO GUZMAN, CORRESPONDENT IN WASHINGTON, AZTECA AMERICA: This is now common. People divided, for and against Donald Trump. But this that is happening on the streets, is the same thing that is happening within the Republican Party. Trump’s insults and tantrums, that excite his followers so much, are making Republicans operatives sick.
DAN SENOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: [Translated by Azteca America] The Republican system, the base of the Republican machine, cannot stand two more weeks of the same damage that Trump has made the last two weeks.
ARMANDO GUZMAN, CORRESPONDENT IN WASHINGTON, AZTECA AMERICA: He’s referring to that in the last two weeks, Trump insulted Judge Gonzalo Curiel, and with it millions of Latinos. He responded to what happened in Orlando by again calling for impeding immigration from Islamic countries, and accused veterans of Iran [Iraq] of stealing reconstruction funds.
DAN SENOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: [In Azteca America] Our Republican leaders blame Trump for the possible loss of eight to nine Senate seats, and reducing to nothing their majority in Congress.
ARMANDO GUZMAN, CORRESPONDENT IN WASHINGTON, AZTECA AMERICA: And that, losing control of both chambers of Congress, is too high a price that Republicans do not want to pay. And now to make matters worse, an average of all national polls shows Hillary going up with 49 points and Trump going down to only 37 among all potential voters in the country.
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