Univision's Jorge Ramos reacts to being booted from Trump presser
Univision host Jorge Ramos is the latest journalist to clash with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and said he was at the Iowa press conference to ask questions, not pick a fight.
"The fact is that I had tried to get an interview with Mr. Trump; I sent him a note a few weeks ago and instead of giving me the interview, he published my cell phone on the Internet. So no, I came to Iowa to ask questions," he said Wednesday on "CBS This Morning."
Trump, who already has a dismal reputation among U.S. Hispanics, found himself in a confrontation Tuesday with Spanish media's most well-known journalist.
The Republican frontrunner, who has proposed deporting the nation's roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants, told Ramos to "go back to Univision" when the journalist stood up and attempted to get in the first question to Trump at the event.
"Two reporters before me asked a question and I said after them, after them, I waited for my turn, and I said 'I have a question on immigration,' and he didn't say anything, so I stood up and I started asking my question," Ramos said.
The GOP candidate insisted Ramos sit down as he tried to call on other reporters, and when Ramos refused to stay quiet, the journalist was escorted out of the room.
"He didn't like the question, and he was clearly in control of that press room, so in other words, he did say with his body language that I had to be out, and that's it; that's what happened," Ramos said.
Bloomberg politics managing editor John Heilemann said no one can condone the idea of journalists being kicked out of press conferences by security guards, and that kind of action does not reflect well on any candidate, but Trump had reason for his actions.
"(Ramos) was making a speech more than he was asking a question and he had not yet been called on so Trump had some, some, minor grounds for trying to restore some decorum," Heilmann said Wednesday on "CBS This Morning."
Monday on CNN, Ramos called the immigration plan Trump intends to roll out "absurd" and said: "When he's talking about immigrants, he's talking about me."