“The View” co-host Ana Navarro said during a Monday panel that it is time for Latinos to hold Univision, a Spanish-speaking channel, accountable for recently interviewing former President Donald Trump.
Trump sat down for a Nov. 9 interview with Univision’s Enrique Acevedo to discuss the Latino vote, the economy, foreign policy and other crucial issues facing the candidates ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Navarro criticized the network for allegedly being too soft on the Republican frontrunner, and cited a political writer who said the interview was “so soft it could have been pillow stuffing.”
“Univision, as you said, is the giant in Spanish news and in Spanish news, there’s a ton of misinformation in our community newspapers, in our radio stations,” Navarro said. “This is a place where Latinos, Spanish-speaking Latinos, go to get informed, to form educated opinions, to get engaged. They have been really great corporate citizens and community citizens…They had a guy named Enrique Acevedo, who’s supposedly a good journalist, I don’t know him, but he sat like if he was interviewing a panda.”
“So this is what I would say to Univision viewers,” she continued. “Use your voice, use your remote controls, use your purchasing power with advertisers. If you’ve got questions, let them know. If are disappointed and troubled, let them know because Univision has held people accountable, it is time for us Latinos to hold Univision accountable.”
The interview drew backlash for allegedly being too warm, leading actor John Leguizamo to call for a boycott of Univision until they restore “parity, and equality and equity” between Trump and President Joe Biden in a video posted to Instagram. He further accused the network of “softballing Trump” and branded the network “MAGA-vision.” (RELATED: ‘What On Earth Was Fox Thinking?’: Megyn Kelly Blasts Univision Partnership)
The network has also reached out to Biden for a one-on-one interview, according to The Washington Post.
Trump praised the network for consisting of “unbelievable entrepreneurial people” who want border security, according to the Los Angeles Times. During the interview, he said that his administration constructed a partial wall along the U.S.-Mexico border after Mexico provided thousands of soldiers “free of charge,” and blamed former President Barack Obama for building detention centers for illegal migrants.
Navarro previously criticized the interview as “an embarrassing 1-hour puff-piece with lots of smiles and no pushback” in a Saturday tweet.
“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,” Navarro said.