Video: Rubio chews out Univision over cheap-shot attack

At least I presume Senator Marco Rubio chewed out Univision interviewer Jorge Ramos as presented in the network’s English-language transcript.  I took French in high school, as did most who grew up in the heavily Francophone area of, er … Los Angeles.  Mediaite has the clip and a little of the background of the dispute between Univision and Rubio, some of which gets aired in the exchange between Rubio and Ramos, but a key part doesn’t get mentioned at all:

When Ramos tried to say the network went to the senator’s office, he declared that a lie and argued that the network “stationed a team of cameras in front of my mother’s house trying to capture the cameras.” Over Ramos attempt to explain the story, Sen. Rubio argued that the story was “not about me, it was the personal story of two private citizens who have nothing to do with politics.”

“I should have been asked about those links,” he continued, “I would have been pleased to tell you that I had nothing to do with it, I was 16 years old; it had a very negative impact on my family; it was a very sad moment.” Instead of doing that, Sen. Rubio accused the network of “persecut[ing] first my sister, then my family directly,” adding that Univisión never called him, that “it was me who called Univisión… because I thought it was a joke.” The “persecuting” quote and the point about him being the one to call the network and not vice versa, as well as a comment about him being taken completely out of context on Twitter thanks to the network, didn’t make it to air today, but appear on the official transcript of the interview.

Sen. Rubio does address his links to his brother-in-law: “I was 16, I bathed the dogs in his back yard, he probably gave me presents,” but concluded, “my family has nothing to do with politics.”

The attack on Rubio’s family was only part of the dispute.  The Miami Herald reported last year that Univision attempted to extort an interview with Rubio by threatening to go public with the story of his brother-in-law’s criminal record in the harshest manner possible.  Republican presidential contenders threatened to boycott a Univision debate in solidarity with Rubio afterward, and this appears to be the first time that Rubio has engaged Univision since that time.

Needless to say, you don’t need to know Spanish to get the gist of Rubio’s opinion of Univision.  Ramos bit off a little more than he could chew here. Rubio doesn’t Hulk out, nor does he “shout down” Ramos as the video title claims, but nonetheless, you’re going to like him when he gets angry.

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