Second GOP Debate Co-Moderator Ilia Calderón Accused Trump of ‘Racist’ Rhetoric: He ‘Empowers White

[mystery-ak]

Second GOP Debate Co-Moderator Ilia Calderón Accused Trump of ‘Racist’ Rhetoric: He ‘Empowers White Supremacists’


Nick Gilbertson 31 Aug 2023

Univision’s Ilia Calderón, who will co-moderate the second Republican presidential debate, is a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump, having accused him of empowering white supremacists and “racist” rhetoric in the past.

Fox News and Univision announced that Calderón, along with Fox News’s Dana Perino and Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney, will moderate the September 27 debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Calderón, who co-moderated the last Democrat presidential debate in 2020 between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and President Joe Biden, has railed against Trump on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, over the years.

After the first 2020 presidential debate on September 19, 2020, Calderon joined others in accusing Trump of not condemning white supremacists when moderator Chris Wallace asked if Trump would condemn them and militia groups and say that “they need to stand down.”

While Trump said “sure,” he caught criticism for stating, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” as Breitbart News Senior Editor Joel Pollak pointed out in a fact check at the time. “Wallace is the one who introduced the “stand down” language — not Trump, who was doing what he was asked,” Pollak emphasized:

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https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2023/08/31/ilia-calderon-accused-trump-empowering-white-supremacists/

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Well, if Trump was participating in the debates, he'd have good grounds to argue for this guy's exclusion.  But since he's not....

[Fishrrman]

Major Bill:
"But since he's not...."

...it proves how savvy Mr. Trump was for deciding against participating in such "debates" ...

[DB]

Major Bill:
"But since he's not...."

...it proves how savvy Mr. Trump was for deciding against participating in such "debates" ...

We'll see.

[libertybele]

Major Bill:
"But since he's not...."

...it proves how savvy Mr. Trump was for deciding against participating in such "debates" ...

Savvy? That's a matter of opinion.  IMHO he was afraid to debate against DeSantis; otherwise he wouldn't have attacked him before he announced and he would attend the debates.  Pretty obvious.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Major Bill:
"But since he's not...."

...it proves how savvy Mr. Trump was for deciding against participating in such "debates" ...

The moderator wasn't named until after they already knew Trump wasn't participating so it wasn't an issue.

But suppose Trump had said he was going to participate, and they named this guy anyway.  That gives him a huge opening to slam "the establishment" for violating their own rules (read the RNC letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates) by naming a moderator with a record of bias against a participant.

But he can't do any of that because he already said he was out.

If he hadn't refused, he could have pointed to his guy as evidence of bias by and refused to debate unless this clearly anti-Trump modrator was removed

[DefiantMassRINO]

Trump won't be able to resist the draw of the spotlight for too much longer.

He can't have that upstart punk, Meatball Ron, steal the spotlight.