Univision’s coverage of the Iowa trial and subsequent conviction of an undocumented immigrant for the 2018 kidnapping and savage murder of Mollie Tibbetts make plain that, nearly six months into the Biden administration, the network is not yet over its Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Watch as anchor Ilia Calderón skipped any mention of the accused killer, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, being in the United States ILLEGALLY while introducing the report, and reporter Andrea León bringing it up as a preamble to the Bad Orange Man and his so-called anti-immigrant policies being somehow responsible for all of this:
ILIA CALDERÓN: A jury found Mexican immigrant Cristhian Bahena Rivera guilty of the kidnapping and murder of college student Mollie Tibbetts.
ANDREA LEÓN: A jury found Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 26-year-old undocumented Mexican, guilty of first-degree murder. He confessed that he had chased the young woman, and that she had asked him to leave her alone or she would call the police.
He said that bothered him and then he only remembered that she was in the trunk of his car covered in blood. He later led investigators to the scene where the body was hidden under corn stalks. This week Rivera changed his testimony and said two men had kidnapped him and forced him to move the body. The jury did not believe that new version.
Molly Tibbetts' death was used by former President Donald Trump to label undocumented Mexicans as murderers during his political campaign, something the young woman's father rejected on more than one occasion and said his daughter would have considered it deeply racist.
Trump did speak out about the murder back in 2018, when the convicted murderer confessed that he had chased the young woman, surveillance cameras placed him at the deceased woman´s last known location, forensic experts found smears of blood with Tibbetts’s DNA in his car, and he led authorities to her body. At the time, Trump told Fox & Friends that "[Tibbetts] was killed by a horrible person that came in from Mexico, illegally here.”
Fast forward to 2021; after a two-week trial and seven hours of deliberations by a jury that found a cold-blooded killer guilty, the only thing that mattered to Univision was that Donald Trump “used the death to label undocumented Mexicans as murderers during his political campaign.” From single - a horrible person - to plural -undocumented immigrants - in less than 10 seconds.
NOTE: While Univision granted 2 minutes to the conviction of Bahena Rivera, Telemundo´s touch-and-go effort lasted all of 26 seconds.
Press on expand to view the complete transcript of the segment mentioned above as aired on Univision News, on Friday, May 28, 2021:
ILIA CALDERÓN: A jury found Mexican immigrant Cristhian Bahena Rivera guilty of the kidnapping and murder of college student Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa in 2018. The verdict was reached after a two-week trial in a Davenport court. Andrea Leon expands for us.
ANDREA LEÓN: Guilty. That was the verdict after a three-week trial over the death of Mollie Tibbetts, the young college student killed while exercising in July 2018. A jury found Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 26-year-old undocumented Mexican, guilty of first-degree murder. Rivera worked on a dairy farm near the place where the young woman was last seen. Surveillance camera video showed his car very close to that location the night Tibbetts disappeared and police found his car. He confessed that he had chased the young woman, and that she had asked him to leave her alone or she would call the police.
He said that bothered him and then he only remembered that she was in the trunk of his car covered in blood. He later led investigators to the scene where the body was hidden under corn stalks. This week Rivera changed his testimony and said two men had kidnapped him and forced him to move the body.
BAENA RIVERA: One was kind of big and fat. The other was my own height and a little muscular. Before leaving, one of them told me not to say anything about what had happened. That they knew Iris, that they knew about my daughter. And that if I said anything, they were going to take care of her.
LEON: The jury did not believe that new version. Molly Tibbetts' death was used by former President Donald Trump to label undocumented Mexicans as murderers during his political campaign, something the young woman's father rejected on more than one occasion and said his daughter would have considered it deeply racist. Back with you to the Jorge studio.
JORGE RAMOS: Thank you very much.
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