Struggles to Answer

Donald Trump Struggles to Answer Tough Questions in Univision Town Hall

Story by Ewan Palmer

Former President Donald Trump avoided directly answering a series of questions about his previous actions or 2024 campaign pledges during a Univision town hall on Wednesday.

At the event, the Republican presidential nominee took questions from an audience of undecided Latino voters in Miami, discussing issues such as the January 6 attack, immigration and abortion.

However, Trump did not go into specifics on a number of the topics that audience members raised, and he avoided some issues altogether.

The Univision event was a chance for Trump to appeal to Latino and Hispanic voters, a potentially crucial voting bloc in swing states such as Nevada and Arizona.

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found that 56 percent of Hispanic voters said they would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, with 37 percent saying they would vote for Trump. In 2020, Joe Biden won the support of 65 percent of Latino voters, compared to 32 percent for Trump, according to a CNN exit poll.

Newsweek has contacted Trump's campaign team for comment via email.

One voter at the town hall, who identified as an unregistered Republican, told Trump, "Your action, and maybe inaction, during your presidency and the last few years was a little disturbing to me."

The voter cited Trump's responses to the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the coronavirus pandemic as examples.

He then noted how many past members of Trump's administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who no longer support the Republican's White House bid, adding, "So why would I want to support you?"

Trump replied that only "a very small portion" of people in his previous administration no longer supported him. He also downplayed the Capitol riot and suggested it was a "day of love."

"You had hundreds of thousands of people come to Washington. They didn't come because of me. They came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election, and that's why they came," Trump said. "Some of those people went down to the Capitol. I said, 'Peacefully and patriotically.' Nothing done wrong at all."

Trump added that many voters, including those in the Latino community, would support him in November. "Maybe we'll get your vote," he said. "Sounds like maybe I won't, but that's OK, too."

A voter who said he had worked for many years picking strawberries and cutting broccoli, a job he said was mainly done by undocumented migrants, asked Trump, "If you deport these people, who would do that job, and what price would we pay for food?"

Trump again did not directly answer the question, replying: "Farmers are doing very badly right now—very, very badly under this administration. Under my administration, farmers did very well."

The former president then criticized the Biden administration, which he said had allowed "hundreds of thousands of people that are murderers, drug dealers, terrorists" into the country.

"We want workers, and we want them to come in, but they have to come in legally. They have to love our country. They have to love you, love our people. The problem with this administration is, they've totally lost control," Trump said, adding, "We want people to come in, but we don't want murderers."

Another voter asked why Trump had used his influence earlier this year to tell Republican lawmakers to kill a bipartisan border security bill that sought to crack down on illegal migration and reduce border crossings.

"You like strong borders, so do I, and we have them," Trump said. "We had the strongest border we've ever had in the recorded history of our country." Trump then went on to discuss the crime rate in Chicago, criticizing Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson.

When asked whether he agreed with his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, on the importance of protecting the right to abortion access—a view she expressed in her soon-to-be-published memoir—Trump said that his wife had "to go with her heart."

"I wouldn't want to impose what I think," he added.

Elsewhere in the event, an audience member asked Trump to name three virtues he saw in Harris.

Though he said the question was the "toughest" one of the night, Trump offered some praise for the vice president.

"I'm not a fan. I think she's harmed our country horribly, horribly—at the border, with inflation, with so many other things," Trump said.

He continued: "But she seems to have an ability to survive, because, you know, she was out of the race, and all of a sudden she's running for president. That's a great ability that some people have and some people don't have.

"She seems to have some pretty longtime friendships … I call that a good thing, and she seems to have a nice way about her."

Harris received a similar question on Trump's virtues during her Univision town hall in Las Vegas on October 10.

"I think Donald Trump loves his family, and I think that's very important. I think family is one of the most important things that we can prioritize," Harris said.

She added: "But I don't really know him, to be honest with you. I only met him one time, on the debate stage. I've never met him before, so I don't really have much more to offer you."