Halfway through a town hall hosted by Univision on Wednesday, Ramiro Gonzalez stood in front of Donald Trump and told the former president that he had lost his support.
Gonzalez, 56, a self-described Republican, said he was alarmed when a mob of Trump鈥檚 supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He did not like Trump鈥檚 leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, and he was dismayed by the chorus of former Trump administration officials who no longer support him. 鈥淚 want to give you the opportunity to try to win back my vote,鈥� Gonzalez, of Tampa, Florida, said.
Trump declined to take it.
Instead, he defended his actions on Jan. 6, offering a picture often at odds with reality. He insisted the crowds who came to Washington 鈥渄idn鈥檛 come because of me, they came because of the election,鈥� ignoring his own role in stoking election denialism. And he added: 鈥淪ome of those people went down to the Capitol 鈥� I said, 鈥榩eacefully and patriotically.鈥� Nothing done wrong. At all, nothing done wrong.鈥�
Then, after criticizing the Biden administration and pivoting to the border, Trump addressed Gonzalez鈥檚 plea. 鈥淢aybe we鈥檒l get your vote,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ounds like maybe I won鈥檛, but that鈥檚 OK, too.鈥�
Trump faced blunt, direct questions in both English and Spanish from undecided Hispanic voters throughout the town hall, which was set to be broadcast at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Men and women from across the country came to Univision鈥檚 Miami-area studio in Doral, Florida, and questioned the former president鈥檚 positions on climate change, gun control and abortion rights, and his baseless claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
The voters鈥� questions were polite yet pointed, and Trump kept his composure, avoiding the hostility he often exhibits when similarly questioned by the news media.
But Trump did not directly engage with many of the thoughtful questions from these voters. Skirting specific answers, he retreated to his standard campaign language, often talking up the achievements of his administration and making vague promises for the future. He would not say whether he believed climate change was a hoax, and he defended his role in overturning Roe v. Wade without staking out a position on abortion.
Yet when Trump was asked about immigration, a central issue of his presidential campaign this year, he also remained vague about his policy plans. In front of an audience of about 100 Latino voters, he did not once mention his pledge to undertake the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
At one point, Guadalupe Ramirez, 53, of Streamwood, Illinois, asked Trump specifically to detail his plans for immigration reform, and to explain why he had helped tank a bipartisan bill that would have enacted far-reaching asylum restrictions and poured more federal dollars into training and personnel at the border.
鈥淲e like strong borders,鈥� Trump said. Then, he blasted the crime rate in Chicago, criticized Democratic mayors and governors and talked about foreign policy without providing any specific details on immigration.
When asked by a voter from Arizona whether he really believed his debunked claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating people鈥檚 pets, Trump blamed what he had read. But he did not back down, saying: 鈥淚 was just saying what was reported. That鈥檚 been reported, and eating other things, too, that they鈥檙e not supposed to be.鈥� (He also insisted once more that he would visit the city, though no visit has been scheduled.)
Vice President Kamala Harris took part in her own Univision town hall last week in Las Vegas. Both events came as Democrats and Republicans have been working to court Hispanic voters, eyeing them as decisive swing voters in several key battleground states, most particularly in Arizona and Nevada.
A recent New York Times/Siena College poll of Hispanic voters found that one-quarter of those surveyed said they were undecided or persuadable 鈥� a higher share than likely voters nationwide. Those undecided voters lean toward Harris. But polls have shown Trump gaining strength among Latino voters, attracting support that his party has not seen for decades.
The poll showed that Latino voters, as with most other demographic groups this year, are sharply split by gender: Hispanic men are far more likely than Hispanic women to back Trump.
On Wednesday, Trump leaned into his familiar appeals to Hispanic voters, boasting about the strength of the economy when he was in office and his efforts to create jobs. He also appeared to try to soften his approach toward legal immigration, despite recently ratcheting up his criticism of programs that allow millions of people to enter the country lawfully.
In one exchange, Jorge Vel谩zquez, a California farmworker, described in Spanish working with his back hunched over, carefully picking strawberries with his hands, a tough job that he said was mainly done by people without legal residency status. He asked Trump whom he believed would harvest the nation鈥檚 crops if he deported those workers and what price Americans would then have to pay for food.
Trump pivoted, as he often does, to disparaging newer migrants arriving at the border as 鈥渄rug dealers鈥� and 鈥渢errorists,鈥� and claiming they were taking jobs from Black and Hispanic people who were in the United States legally.
鈥淲e have to have people that are great people come into our country,鈥� Trump said, 鈥渂ut we do want them in, and I want them in even more than you do, and we鈥檙e going to make it so that people can come into our country legally.鈥� He did not explain how he might alter existing immigration policy to do so.
But Democrats have sought to underscore the aggressiveness of Trump鈥檚 hard-line immigration agenda. At a nearby news conference before his appearance, the Harris campaign sought to draw attention to one of his administration鈥檚 most denounced actions 鈥� that of separating migrant families at the southern border.
A girl at the news conference named Adriana said she was 6 years old when she and her father were held in a freezing holding room without beds before being separated. A boy named Billy said he had been 9 when he was separated. He said the emptiness he felt when officers told him he 鈥渨asn鈥檛 going to be able to see my family again was something out of this world 鈥� and something that no kids should go through.鈥�
Though he mentioned Harris鈥� name only twice, Trump remained critical of her, at one point arguing that President Joe Biden should have fired her. And as part of the event鈥檚 last question, Trump continued attacking her after he was asked to name 鈥渢hree virtues鈥� that she possessed.
鈥淪he seems to have a nice way about her,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 mean, I like the way some of her statements, some of her 鈥� the way she behaves, in a certain way. But in another way, I think it鈥檚 very bad for our country, very bad for our country.鈥�
This article originally appeared in .
