Posted on 12 June 2020
It looks like Telemundo has made up its mind about who should be the Democratic vice presidential candidate: Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA). Just this week, the network granted her close to nine minutes of editorial time with an exclusive interview that has so far appeared on two news programs, six different online links on Telemundo.com, plus another big online push from sister network NBCUniversal.
Furthermore, the network disqualified Congresswoman Val Demings (D-FL) for the position, with both Un Nuevo Día's Fransisco Cáceres and Telemundo Mediodía's Paulina Sodi both claiming that Harris was the only qualified African American in the race.
Take a look at the Cáceres obvious endorsement of Harris and shunning of Demings:
NICOLE SUAREZ: We move on to Francisco Caceres. Francisco, you had a chance to interview Senator Kamala Harris. Tell us.
FRANCISCO CACERES: Of course, Nicole, this morning we woke up to the news that she returns to the top of the list of women who could become Joe Biden's vice presidential candidate. As we know, Biden has announced that he will choose a woman. And in the climate of racial equality we live in right now, many people say that this woman should be an African-American. And of all the (VP) hopefuls, Harris is the only one with the necessary, or traditionally necessary, experience for vice presidents, because before she was a California senator, she was the Attorney General for that state.
The interview was originally broadcast on the morning Un Nuevo Día show, on Tuesday, June 9th, and lasted almost 12 minutes. Using the new war cries of the liberals – racism and defunding the police – as a hook, host Francisco Caceres's soft interview steered towards that angle. Yet, while Caceres did his best to try and get a firm yes or no about defunding the police, Harris circled around the questions with the political savvy of a professional politician. In other words, non-compromising fluff speech.
It would seem that Harris's advisers are looking into new strategies and tactics, so as to not repeat her previous mistakes. That’s all well and fine. What isn’t though, is that a major television network goes out of its way to boost a candidate, as Telemundo has clearly done for Kamala Harris.