Univision anchor Jorge Ramos said Donald Trump “tried to silence me, and in this country, you cannot do that” during an interview Wednesday on Fox News’ “The Kelly File.”
Ramos’ appearance on the show comes in the aftermath of a confrontation between the Mexican-American newsman and the GOP front-runner that took place at an Iowa press conference Tuesday. When Ramos pressed Trump on the topic of immigration, the candidate told him to “go back to Univison” and Ramos was forcibly removed by security. Ramos was eventually allowed to return and ask questions. Trump later said the reporter was “totally out of line” and was “ranting and raving like a mad man.”
“His words are dangerous and his words are extreme when it comes to immigration and when it comes to freedom of the press,” Ramos told host Megyn Kelly. According to Ramos, he did not break decorum with his line of questioning, insisting that he waited patiently to speak to Trump and was only rebuked because the candidate “didn’t like the question."
"I've been a journalist for 30 years and I've never been ejected from a press conference anywhere in the world," he said. Ramos went on to compare Trump’s actions to the sort of thing you see "in dictatorships, not in the United States of America.”
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“The problem is he is not used to being questioned, he doesn’t like getting uncomfortable questions, this happened with you and this happened with your colleagues at Fox News,” said Ramos.
Kelly has been on the receiving end of diatribes from Trump as of late. She became a favorite target of the real estate mogul after questioning him about his past sexist remarks on social media while moderating the first 2016 debate. After alluding to the possibility that Kelly may have been menstruating at the time, Trump has repeatedly questioned her intelligence and talent, most recently retweeting a supporter who called her a “bimbo.”
Trump's attacks on Kelly have received widespread condemnation, with even Fox News CEO Roger Ailes demanding an apology.
But on Wednesday, Kelly avoided commiserating with Ramos, despite repeated attempts by the Univision personality to link their plights (“You know exactly how it feels,” Ramos said at one point). Instead, she suggested that perhaps Trump didn’t want to engage with Univision, a network that has "bad blood" with the candidate and may have “already made up their mind” about him.
Ramos was unswayed by the suggestion. He repeatedly raised skepticism about Trump’s purported plan to deport as many 11 million undocumented immigrants and build a wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. “When he’s expressing those really dangerous words, we have to confront them” Ramos said.
The anchor said he had previously reached out to Trump for a one-on-one interview in a handwritten note, but instead of responding, Trump tweeted the message out, which included Ramos’ personal cell phone number.
Univision was sued for $500 million by Trump in June, after the network cut ties with the real estate mogul over his controversial claim that undocumented immigrants from Mexico are often "killers" and "rapists."
"As journalists ... we have to take a stand when it comes to racism, corruption, public lies, dictatorships and human lives," Ramos said.