Amanda Rentería, national political director of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, has received another cushy interview, this time at the hands of none other than Univision anchor Jorge Ramos.
Following on the heels of a puff piece on Telemundo, the six and a half minute interview with Rentería on Univision also failed to bring up the flurry of financial and ethical controversies swirling around Rentería’s candidate, in relation to the Clinton Foundation (including Univision’s own close ties to the Foundation).
Instead, Ramos’ interview segment with Rentería essentially amounted to a friendly discussion of Hillary Clinton’s outreach to the Hispanic community. In fact, during the interview Rentería repeated the phrase “the community” no less than 14 times.
Rentería played up the contention that candidate Clinton is prepared to “do more” than President Obama, in terms of expanding the Obama administration’s current policies of amnesty and non-enforcement of federal immigration law to ostensibly include millions more, and thus, in Rentería’s words, “help all the community that is here.”
AMANDA RENTERIA: I believe she knows the community and we were talking a lot about what is happening in the community with these families that are truly breaking. And when she looked at that, we talked about what we are going to do. And the truth is, she knows she can do more. She knows the community, and when we were there in that room she spoke about the past, when she went to the countryside with migrant families. And I believe she saw, now we are on time, that we need to help all the community that is here.
In addition to failing to ask Rentería about #ClintonCash, Ramos also failed to pose a single question about candidate Clinton’s previous record of flip flops and harsh rhetoric on unauthorized immigrants, including Clinton’s 2003 rant that “I am adamantly against illegal immigrants.”
Towards the conclusion of the interview, Ramos even made his own contribution to the Rentería and Clinton narrative by characterizing Clinton’s policy of avoiding media interviews and talking with the “community” as a “People First” strategy.
Perhaps this was just a soft opener of an interview for Clinton’s newly-minted national political director, and Ramos will return to tougher form in the future. But given the extent of the network’s investment in the campaign and cheerleading so far, don’t expect it.
Below are the translated and original portions of the referenced segment of Al Punto.
English Translation:
AMANDA RENTERIA: I believe she knows the community and we were talking a lot about what is happening in the community with these families that are truly breaking. And when she looked at that, we talked about what we are going to do. And the truth is, she knows she can do more. She knows the community, and when we were there in that room she spoke about the past, when she went to the countryside with migrant families. And I believe she saw, now we are on time, that we need to help all the community that is here.
JORGE RAMOS: Why hasn’t she spoken yet? Why hasn’t she given interviews?
AMANDA RENTERÍA: At this time, we’re in the communities. I believe it is more important that she would be speaking with the dreamers or the students, or the people that are in these communities. And you are going to see that we are going to do that more, because they should have a voice and now is the time to have a voice for them. And well, when we move forward we will have many, many opportunities to speak with many more people, but now it is very important that she is speaking with the people directly.
JORGE RAMOS: That is the strategy, ‘The People First’?
AMANDA RENTERÍA: Yes
JORGE RAMOS: Amanda Rentería, thanks for being with us. The first of many interviews.
Español Original:
AMANDA RENTERIA: Yo creo que ella sabe de la comunidad y estábamos hablando muchísimo qué está pasando en la comunidad con estas familias que están, la verdad, rompiendo. Y cuando ella miró eso, nosotros hablamos de qué vamos a hacer. Y la verdad es, ella sabe que puede hacer más, ella conoce la comunidad, y cuando estábamos en ese cuarto habló del pasado, cuando ella se fue a un campo con las familias de inmigrantes y yo creo que ella miró, ahorita estamos a tiempo, que necesitamos ayudar a toda la comunidad que está aquí.
Y era muy importante para ella, que nosotros y todos oyen la historia de estos estudiantes, los sueños y todo eso. Y cuando miras eso, cambia cómo ves a la comunidad y la reforma también.
JORGE RAMOS: ¿Por qué no ha hablado todavía? ¿Por qué no ha dado entrevistas?
AMANDA RENTERÍA: En este momento, estamos en las comunidades, yo creo que es más importante que ella esté hablando con los dreamers o los estudiantes, o la gente que está en estas comunidades. Y vas a ver que vamos a hacer eso más porque ellos deben tener una voz y ahora es el tiempo para tener una voz para ellos. Y cuando sigamos adelante vamos a tener muchas, muchas oportunidades de hablar con mucha más gente, pero ahorita es muy importante que ella está hablando con la gente directamente.
JORGE RAMOS: ¿Esa es la estrategia, primero la gente?
AMANDA RENTERÍA: Sí.
JORGE RAMOS: Amanda Rentería, gracias por estar con nosotros, la primera de muchas entrevistas.
