The latest edition of Univision’s Sunday political affairs show Al Punto featured a remarkable debut, and displayed several lessons for conservatives on how to engage liberal media.
In the clip below you’ll see Las Vegas-based conservative commentator Jesús Márquez as he responds to Jorge Ramos’ opening question to him, and makes a clear case for why Hispanic support for President Donald Trump is on the rise:
JORGE RAMOS, HOST, AL PUNTO: Why do you think there are so many Latinos that, according to some polls, are beginning to support Donald Trump?
JESÚS MARQUEZ, REPUBLICAN ANALYST: Because they’ve realized that he wasn’t as bad as they made him out to be. We see an economy that is blossoming, especially among Latinos. We have the lowest unemployment in history since there are Latino records regarding unemployment. We are getting better trade treaties with Mexico and other countries. So, we Latinos are seeing the fruit of that on the table when it comes time to pay the bills and provide for their families. So, I believe that Hispanics have realized, besides the fact that they’ve realized that there were more family separations, more deportations in the Obama era. And so…
RAMOS: He deported two and a half million, correct…
MARQUEZ: More so, on the record, than what the President (Trump) has done if we take year-over-year into account.
As for Márquez, his was a promising debut on national TV. He showed what conservatives have to do in situations like these, which is to stay on offense. Márquez did so here, not by merely spitting up talking points, but by making a factual economic case for why Hispanic support for Trump is higher than some might expect.
Márquez was unfazed by the fact that he was at a disadvantage in the panel (two against one, but really three against one, if you count Ramos) and ably parried with both his host and two liberal co-panelists.
Furthermore, note that Márquez wasn’t afraid to mix it up on immigration. He went right at Ramos with the Obama as ‘Deporter-in-Chief’ line, which enabled him to make his points on border security later in the interview. Márquez engaged on his opponents’ ideological ground, but did so on his own terms and remained true to his beliefs. In other words, Márquez showed that one need not pander or equivocate.
The next obvious takeaway from this exchange is that Jorge Ramos clearly needs to talk to more conservative Hispanics. Ramos has been asking varying versions of this same question and expressing his bewilderment over Hispanic support for Trump since the morning after the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In fact, in an early November 9, 2016 interview with pal Carmen Aristegui, Ramos noted that he used to hear caller after caller express support for Trump as he walked by Radio Mambí’s studios on his way to the office, and admits to having blown that off.
Rather than just dismissing support for Trump (or for Republicans generally) as race-betrayal or religious bigotry (as he hinted at in his interview with Spain’s El Intermedio), Ramos needs to extricate himself from the comforts of his bubble, and listen to those who have a different perspective than what he offers up in his opinion columns and on his weekly English-language programming on Facebook.
In sum, Univision’s viewers got to see something they normally don’t: a conservative facing Jorge Ramos and unabashedly articulating why conservative ideas win within the Hispanic community.
