MAGA-Vision

Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott on the Mexican border on November 19th

It’s no secret that Joe Biden has lost major segments among key swing-states, younger voters, African-Americans (especially, his once legendary following among Black women) and even among college-educated individuals. For some, it is still the economy, even as most of Biden’s accomplishments have been economic, from taming inflation to funding new job-creating infrastructure/climate change investments to supporting union workers. But though he gets blamed for it, he does not control interest rates (the independent Federal Reserve Bank does) or oil prices. The United States could double its current massive output of oil and gas, but if OPEC+ pulls back its production, oil and gas prices everywhere (even Texas!!!) will still soar. People seem to be narrow focused on the escalation in the cost of everything… even as their wages and salaries enjoyed unprecedented increases, particularly within recently settled strikes.

Biden’s apparent unquestioning support of Israel, even as most of the rest of the world demands a ceasefire (which he backchannels to a resistant Netanyahu), is also tearing the Democratic Party his presidential campaign apart. And even though there isn’t much of an age difference between Trump and Biden, Trump (driven by anger and retribution) shows more vigor, greater passion and animation. Biden shuffles when he walks, uses vocabulary and references from days long gone by and seems tired in his speeches. Even if all Biden’s disillusioned constituents don’t vote for Donald Trump, if they do not vote at all or if a moderate third-party candidate like Joe Manchin hives away precious votes from Biden, the President could be toast… even against an indicated (and possibly convicted), clearly autocratic opponent.

But one of the sorest of sore spots remains immigration. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has endorsed Trump, has adopted Trump’s “round ‘em up, hunt them down, and put them in massive detention camps” style of immigration reform. All this despite a very significant and steady decline in the aggregate number of undocumented aliens from south of the border and the unflagging resistance from the entire Republican Party since the last major reform package (passed during the Reagan presidency) to reform… even as proposed during post-Reagan GOP George W Bush presidency. They won’t “fix” it or even entertain a legislative “fix,” and will lay all the issues on Biden’s lap. With joy.

And yet despite White supremacist and anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from Trump and his followers, the one constituency you would think would fight harder to sustain a Biden campaign would be Hispanics and related media companies. Sure, Trump picked up some Latino males with his machismo ethos, but the constituency seemed otherwise solidly Democratic and pro-Biden. Until now. Writing for the November 20th Los Angeles Times, Hannah Wiley and Julia Wick confront a recent interview on the US Spanish language network, Univision with Donald Trump (conducted by Enrique Acevedo, an anchor from Mexican network Televisa and who is not a Univision journalist), which failed to address Trump’s numerous anti-Latino/immigrant stated intentions… with more than a few allegations that Univision ads for Biden were pulled: “Univision has found itself at the center of a growing controversy after a recent interview with former President Trump that critics have blasted as too friendly.

“The interview that aired Nov. 9 was noticeably warm, and Trump received little pushback as he gave false or misleading statements on border security and immigration policies he instituted as president… Backlash from certain corners of the Latino community was swift, including calls for more balanced reporting and an outright boycott of the television network ahead of the 2024 election.

“Latinos are considered a crucial voting bloc — and largely up for grabs — in next year’s election, likely to be a rematch between Trump and President Biden. Although Latino voters have historically favored Democrats, the Republican Party in recent years has made significant progress in courting their votes … The exclusive interview with Trump therefore raised significant alarms within the Democratic Party and its allies that the leading Republican candidate was making unchecked claims to important swing voters…

“‘All you have to do is look at the owners of Univision,’ Trump said in the first few minutes of the interview when asked about Latino voters and recent polls showing him defeating Biden in 2024. ‘They’re unbelievable entrepreneurial people, and they like me.’… ‘They want to see security,’ Trump added. ‘They want to have a border.’

“During the interview, Trump made questionable claims that the partial wall built along the southern border was made possible by Mexico providing thousands of soldiers ‘free of charge,’ and that former President Obama laid the groundwork for the controversial policy at the border to deter illegal crossings that became known as the family-separation crisis… Acevedo did not push back on either claim.

‘It wasn’t just a friendly interview. It was an embarrassing 1-hour puff-piece with lots of smiles and no pushback with a guy who relished in attacking, belittling and otherizing Latinos and Latin American immigrants,’ Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, a prominent Nicaraguan American political strategist and commentator, said on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter… León Krauze, a veteran news anchor for Univision, has since resigned from the network. He did not provide a reason for his departure.” Indeed, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law is given credit for setting up the interview. But who exactly is Univision?

According to Wikipedia, it’s “an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes telenovelas and other drama series, sports, sitcoms, reality and variety series, news programming, and imported Spanish-language feature films. Univision is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and has its major studios, production facilities, and business operations based in Doral, Florida (near Miami).” And now, obviously pro-Trump.

I’m Peter Dekom, Joe Biden’s campaign is currently a world of hurt and whether he can turn all this negativity around within a year is now very much in doubt.