Heavy is the burden of being right. Univision’s interview of President Joe Biden went exactly as we foretold– the softball that the left, Acela Media and Professional Latinx still think Televisa anchor Enrique Acevedo afforded former President Donald Trump back in November. Whatever you may wish to call it: don’t call it a return to form for Univision, because the network never stopped being a reliable Democrat talking point regurgitator.
In this sense, Univision was defamed by everyone screaming about a rightward shift that only actually exists in the fevered swamps of the imaginations of the Acela Media and the Professional Latinx. The Trump interview was a one-off, not a permanent change in editorial direction. So the hype ahead of the Biden interview was just that.
For starters, the interview was starkly different from the Trump interview. As we said in the preview:
…it will be significantly different from the Trump interview, where Acevedo and crew simply set up shop at Mar-a-Lago and let it rip. Both from Carrasquillo’s reporting and from Acevedo himself, we can glean that this interview will have significant choreography (as one would expect given that Biden comms consigliere Anita Dunn set the whole thing up).
Sure enough, the Biden interview was slick, beautifully produced, and heavily edited to the point of being practically one extended campaign ad.
The most newsworthy item to emerge from the interview will be Biden’s call for Israel to unilaterally offer Hamas a six or eight-week ceasefire, with no mention of hostages, for “total access of all food and medicine to go into the country.”
🚨🚨🚨🚨 Biden calls on Israel to “just do a ceasefire” so aid can flow into Gaza, unilaterally and with no mention of hostages. No follow up from Acevedo, who moves on to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/UlTM9UXwC2
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 10, 2024
The White House may spin it into the wind to their heart’s content, but that sounded very unilateral-ly. Acevedo them moves on to Ukraine.
More broadly, the interview touched on those things the Biden campaign may deem of interest to the Hispanic community. Prescription drug prices, Obamacare, student loans, housing assistance as promised at the State of the Union address, and gun control. With some foreign policy and Democracy mixed in.
Missing from the interview: inflation (sort of), gas prices, the cost of food, the cost of living and, interestingly enough, abortion.
Acevedo tried to throw in an inflation question without actually saying the word “inflation” and Biden totally missed it, going instead on a ramble about bounced check fees. No follow-up from Acevedo here.
Acevedo sort of asks an inflation/cost of living question here and gets met with ramble about dignity and junk fees on bounced checks. Next question is on the price of insulin. pic.twitter.com/XQbtHtnfsf
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 10, 2024
Shortly thereafter and in a weird piece of editing, Biden accuses Trump of making fun of him over being Irish-Catholic:
Biden accuses Trump of making fun of him over being Irish-Catholic. No follow-up. Weirdly edited. pic.twitter.com/WgfJ0Wi9wr
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 10, 2024
In the preview, we made a point about how much better Biden sounds with the Spanish dubbing. Here is the gun control question in English:
An early bellwether in this Univision-Biden interview: heavily edited, cut mid-ramble and jumps to Uvalde. Biden goes to “weapons of war trope”, which the Founders recognized one could ABSOLUTELY OWN. Almost violent cut to commercial. Low energy. OOF. pic.twitter.com/4Py0xpMGk0
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 10, 2024
…and now dubbed into Spanish. Biden is made to sound so good here that the dubbing is almost election interference.
Dubbed into Spanish, Biden sounds like he’s 44 and lucid. And this version of Biden is all some voters will ever hear. Borderline election interference https://t.co/itmbZQ187a pic.twitter.com/uvb8ONZJ7p
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 10, 2024
And finally, an Oval Office reminder that Biden has little to offer in terms of Hispanic messaging beyond a noun, a verb, and Cesar Chavez:
A noun, a verb, and… pic.twitter.com/pra06brITi
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 10, 2024
The interview is by no means a game-changer. While it was very soft and deferential, it was no softer or more deferential than what a replacement-level Democrat would garner at Univision. The left may probably feel occasion to exult about the interview and proclaim it Univision’s return into the fold.
But, in fairness, Univision never left.