Now that his lawsuit against Univision has been settled, Donald Trump says he is happy to tape an interview with the network’s star anchorman Jorge Ramos.
“We’re going to do an interview with Jorge,” Trump said at a Friday night rally.
On Saturday he tweeted about it, but then deleted the comment later in the day.
A spokesman for Ramos declined to comment, but another person close to him said talks are underway about a possible interview. Nothing has been scheduled yet.
Ramos is often described as the most influential Hispanic anchorman in the United States. He reaches millions of people through his newscasts on Univision, America’s dominant Spanish-language network, and he openly advocates for the interests of his audience.
Trump and Ramos tussled back in August when Ramos tried to question the candidate without being called on at a press conference. Ramos said he resorted to the press conference tactic because Trump had refused his numerous interview requests.
“Go back to Univision,” Trump told him. Ramos was escorted out of the room, then allowed back in about ten minutes later for an argumentative exchange with the candidate.
Later in the year, the Trump campaign denied press credentials to some Univision staffers, citing Trump’s ongoing lawsuit against the broadcaster.
The two sides went to court after Univision backed out of its scheduled telecast of the Miss USA pageant, an event that was half owned by Trump at the time.
Univision said it canceled the July 12 telecast because it could not remain in business with a presidential candidate who had offended many Hispanics.
On Thursday the two sides announced a confidential settlement of the case.
The timing was noteworthy because Trump’s campaign is looking ahead to several primary states, including Nevada and Florida, where the Hispanic vote is crucial.
At his Friday night rally, Trump mentioned the settlement saying, “Isn’t that nice? A very nice settlement. I’m happy, they’re happy, it’s great.”
He invoked Ramos’s name too and said “I’ll do an interview.”
On Saturday morning, he tweeted, “Now that I have settled my litigation with Univision, I look forward to sitting down with their star anchor (not baby) for an interview.”
The “not baby” aside seemed to be an allusion to “anchor babies,” a phrase Trump and some other Republican candidates have repeatedly used on the campaign trail. It is used to criticize the concept of birthright citizenship.
The tweet was deleted from Trump’s account within a couple of hours.
After Trump’s comments, Univision Noticias tweeted in Spanish: “Now Donald Trump is willing to be interviewed by Jorge Ramos.”
