While President Barack Obama has a decided lead over the Hispanic vote, that did not make his appearance easy on the Spanish language channel Univision. He was asked hard questions that Latinos are very concerned about when voting in the upcoming elections. One interesting question was posed by Jorge Ramos, about why the president had not kept the promise he made to Latinos during his first campaign of comprehensive immigration reform during his first year in office. “With all due respect, a promise is a promise,” Ramos said to Obama in English during the mostly Spanish interview. Obama’s response had to do with a lack of Republican support, the pressing issue of the economic collapse, among other excuses, but he ended by saying that his “biggest failure is that we haven’t gotten comprehensive immigration reform done.” He was also asked hard questions about the economy and the recent Fast and Furious scandal. This was a gun-running operation in which federal agents allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican gangsters in order to trace the weapons. The program not only didn’t work, but a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed, with his death linked to the failed operation.
Obama passed the blame for this scandal onto the Bush administration. He said that as soon as Eric Holder, the attorney general, was made aware of the Fast and Furious opperation, he put a stop to it. Obama’s interview took place during the event at the BankUnited Center Field House on the University of Miami campus.
Listen to the full interview and read more by following these links.
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/Politics/obama-calls-immigration-reform-biggest-failure/story?id=17281401
http://www.policymic.com/articles/15137/obama-univision-interview-president-struggles-with-tough-questions-about-immigration-reform
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/09/20/161495589/despite-obamas-high-latino-support-univision-puts-him-on-hot-seat