Joe Biden is set to give an interview to leading Latino broadcaster Univision as both parties reconcile following a spat over the latter's interview with presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump last year, criticized by Democrats for what they saw as a soft line of questioning.
Vanity Fair reported that the interview is set to take place on Thursday, and it will be conducted by Enrique Acevedo, the same journalist who sat down with Trump in November of last year.
It will be part of a package that will also include an interview with Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, as well as two questions that Acevedo already asked the president during a campaign stop in late March in Phoenix, Arizona.
Democrats and Univision addressed their rift in January during a meeting between White House senior adviser Anita Dunn and TelevisaUnivision Mexico co-CEO Bernardo Gómez Martínez, Vanity Fair reported.
The fallout was public, with Acevedo and Univision receiving backlash for not pushing back on some of Trump's claims and comments, including one where he compared migrants reaching the country with Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer.
Criticism also came from several Latino leaders, who expressed concern over media suggestions that the interview was be part of a larger strategic effort by the network to cultivate a closer relationship with Trump.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) had also requested a meeting with Davis, questioning the network's recent political reporting and its adherence to editorial guidelines. "Circumstances surrounding the interview with former president Trump have given the appearance that the company has not upheld these standards," the letter read.
After the Trump interview, León Krauze, an anchor for Noticieros Univision, resigned from the network. Without explicitly stating his reasons, many pundits in the U.S. and Mexico attributed Krauze's resignation to Univision's apparent alignment with Trump.
Univision, on its end, publicly defended the interview. In a letter of his own, CEO Wade Davis said that "we made a decision to adopt a strategy that is different than what some other major networks are using, which has been labeled as partisan."
"Univision's news strategy is one that is non-partisan and objective, and we serve our audience by being welcoming of competing issues, ideas, candidates and parties. We are here to serve our audience, not any political party, any one candidate or partisan groups," the statement added.
The network has been openly critical of Trump and his policies in the past, so the interview's tone stood out in contrast. The fact that the Washington Post reported that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, helped arrange it, only contributed to raising eyebrows.
In the interview Trump also answered why he believes he's gaining traction with this demographic, saying that those who live in the U.S. "want security and a border."
Asked about why he believed more Latinos were identifying as conservative, he said: "It is a big honor because it has happened since I became President. They are entrepreneurial, energetic. Some of the best businesses are ran by Latinos. They want security too. They don't want people breaking into their houses. I think that is one of the reasons why they like me."
Aware of this, the Biden campaign launched a wide-ranging push aimed at reaching out to this demographic, including interviews, ads and fieldwork. "The Latino vote was critical to the President's victory in 2020, and 2024 will be no different," said Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez.
The latest poll focused on Latinos, released this month by The New York Times and Siena College, shows the former president with a six percentage point lead over the current one, 46 to 40%.
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