Audio suggests Jorge Ramos 'hunted' Donald Trump to stage

Iowa confrontation
On Thursday, former GOP congressional candidate Jorge Bonilla suggested in both English and
Spanish that Univision's Jorge Ramos pre-planned and staged his confrontation with Donald Trump
for "maximum impact and ratings." The same day, we obtained a piece of audio that would seem to
vindicate Bonilla's concern. The audio is part of a Spanish-language program based in Colombia, and
in it, an individual appearing to sound like Ramos is heard talking about "hunting" Trump for some
time before confronting him in Iowa.
"Ramos does not normally leave the comforts of his Miami citadel, unless it is for assignments of his
own choosing," Bonilla wrote. "He certainly does not pound the pavement along with the press corps
that is covering the campaign trail. When you consider this fact along with his actions at the press
conference, the only reasonable conclusion is that this entire incident was pre-planned and precrafted for maximum impact and ratings." The audio we obtained would seem to support Bonilla's
hypothesis.
The English-language translation of the article does not mention Ramos' apparent plan to track
Trump down, however, it does note that Ramos compared the media mogul to Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro. "I see the phenomenon of Donald Trump and I can compare it to what you are living
with Nicolas Maduro and Colombian immigrants there in Venezuela, blaming both the weak and
using this for electoral purposes," he told Daro Arizmendi.
According to a synopsis provided by our source, a naturalized citizen from Ecuador who wished to
remain anonymous, Ramos says that he has been "hunting" Trump for about two weeks or so. The
Spanish word cazando, which means hunting, can clearly be heard about 50 seconds into the audio
clip. He reportedly got to the Iowa event quite early in order to secure a seat in the front. He was
able to get in easily as no one apparently recognized who he was.
His plan, it seems, was to keep talking, no matter what happened. This would appear to conflict with
claims that he was simply trying to ask questions. Bonilla addressed this claim as well, saying that
Ramos provided "no actual questions in that first exchange."
As we reported Thursday, Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, condemned Ramos
for his action, calling him a "pro-amnesty activist masquerading as a journalist." Bozell also said that
Ramos "is not a 'reporter' nor does he therefore have the 'right to ask questions.' Ramos
embarrassed both himself and his profession by becoming the story with his unseemly antics."
MRC Latino Director Ken Oliver-Mendez also condemned Ramos, saying the Univision anchor,
"clearly crossed the line between reporting and editorializing." The audio we obtained would appear
to indicate that Ramos may have gone well beyond editorializing.
"Ramos just wanted to heckle, grab attention, and feed into a martyrdom complex upon receiving
pushback," Bonilla said. "Of course he did, aided and abetted by his enablers in the mainstream
media. 'I am a journalist and my job is to ask questions. No, we are not going to sit down and we are
not going to go away.'