Donald Trump Removes Jorge Ramos From Iowa News Conference

Donald Trump attacked Univision anchor Jorge Ramos during a news conference in Iowa on August 25, and asked his security to remove the well-known news personality from the room.

Jorge Ramos stood up and began to ask Donald Trump about his immigration proposal, which includes ending automatic citizenship for infants born in the US to parents in the country illegally.

As Jorge Ramos began to speak, Donald Trump interrupted him, saying he hadn’t called on Ramos before repeatedly telling him to “sit down”.

Donald Trump pounced on the Univision anchor: “Sit down. You weren’t called sit down. Sit down.” Then saying: “Go back to Univision.”

As Jorge Ramos continued to speak, Donald Trump appeared to glance at his regular, traveling bodyguard and click his lips. The bodyguard then approached Jorge Ramos and escorted him out of the room.

As Donald Trump’s bodyguard approached Jorge Ramos, the anchor continued to speak, saying: “You cannot deport 11 million people.”

Jorge Ramos was referring to Donald Trump’s proposal to deport all people in the country illegally before allowing some of them to return.

As he was taken from the room, Jorge Ramos said about another proposal in Donald Trump’s plan: “You cannot build a 1,900-mile wall.”

Moments later, Donald Trump justified Jorge Ramos’ removal, saying: “He just stands up and starts screaming. Maybe he’s at fault also.”

When a reporter asked him about the exchange, Donald Trump said: “I don’t really know much about him… I didn’t escort him out. Whoever security is escorted him out.”

Donald Trump added: “Somebody just walked him out, I don’t know where he is, I don’t even mind if he comes back, frankly… He’s obviously a very emotional person.”

Ten minutes later Jorge Ramos was allowed back into the news conference. Donald Trump greeted him politely, though they quickly resumed their argument, interrupting each other during an extended back-and-forth.

Jorge Ramos began: “Your immigration plan, it is full of empty promises. You cannot deport 11 million people.

“You cannot deny citizenship to children born in this country. You cannot.”

Donald Trump cut him off: “Why do you say that? Excuse me, no, no. A lot of people think that’s not right, that an act of Congress can do that,” referring to citizenship by birth, a constitutional principle that grants citizenship to children born in the United States.

The Republican presidential frontrunner interrupted Jorge Ramos several times, continuing to make his argument: “Excuse me, no. No, no, some of the greatest legal scholars, and I know some of those television scholars agree with you.”

During the five-minute exchange, Jorge Ramos claimed that 40% of people in the country illegally enter through airports, not over the Mexican border.

“I don’t believe that. I don’t believe it,” Donald Trump responded.

A 2006 report by the Pew Hispanic Center found that as much as 45% of the people in the US illegally entered with legal visas but overstayed them.

Donald Trump said he did not believe that a majority of immigrants in the US illegally were criminals, or in the country to commit crimes.

“Most of them are good people,” he said. But he described recent cases where people had been killed by assailants later determined to be in the country illegally.

In the end, Donald Trump reminded Jorge Ramos that he was suing Univision, which dropped his Miss Universe pageant after he described immigrants in the US illegally as “criminals” and “rapists.”

“Do you know how many Latinos work for me? Do you know how many Hispanics work for me?” Donald Trump said.

“Thousands. They love me.”

Univision CEO Isaac Lee responded to the confrontation with a written comment: “We’d love for Mr. Trump to sit down for an in-depth interview with Jorge to talk about the specifics of his proposals.”