One of ABC's moderators for the next Democratic presidential primary debate is a journalist who has said it is impossible to be "neutral" on President Donald Trump.
This week ABC News unveiled its moderators for September's debate, and one is the influential Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who's known as a "Trump combatant." Ramos will moderate the debate alongside George Stephanopoulos, David Muir, and Linsey Davis.
The Hill's Joe Concha called attention to Ramos's vocal political views in an op-ed Thursday. Concha wrote that Ramos is "an opinion-maker, particularly on immigration — and an activist," pointing to Ramos's past writing on how journalists should react to the Trump presidency.
"It doesn’t matter who you are — a journalist, a politician or a voter — we’ll all be judged by how we responded to Donald Trump. ... neutrality is not an option," Ramos wrote in a 2016 Time essay.
Additionally, Ramos wrote in his 2018 book that "I’m completely convinced that on certain issues you have to take a stand. You can’t remain neutral. ... I cannot remain silent."
In a Washington Post profile of Ramos from 2015, he is described as "Part journalist, part activist, and now full-on Trump combatant." The article describes Ramos as regarding "his role as one part traditional journalist. He's there to tell people what has happened, when it happened and what it means."
It also describes Ramos's view that Univision "must embrace the work of social justice. They must report accurately and fairly but never pretend that all information or points of view are equally valid."
The profile recounted Ramos's history of going after both sides of the political aisle over the issue of immigration:
Ramos's advocacy has targeted both parties. In 2012, he was openly and overtly critical of the fact that during his first term, the Obama administration set new records for deportations and insisted that Obama could use his executive authority to help so-called Dreamers — or young adults brought to the country illegally as children. That's something Obama eventually did, creating the program known as DACA. And Ramos criticized him publicly for failing to act sooner too.
When it came to Mitt Romney, Ramos's disdain for Romney's immigration ideas — most notably "self-deportation," a conscious government effort to make life in the United States untenable — was pretty clear too.
Ramos has decided Trump is worse than Obama and Romney, however. He recently described Trump as "the most anti-immigrant President in the last 70 years," and said the president can't stop an "incredible demographic revolution."