Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
For the first time ever, the White House invited four local
Spanish-language television anchors to participate in the “Live from the
White House” series, or in this case “En Vivo desde la Casa Blanca.” President Obama sat down for interviews with the four Spanish-language television stations on Tuesday. From the White House blog, Local Spanish Language Television Reporters Attend "Live from the White House" Series:
During this full day of behind-the-scenes and special
access, each reporter had the opportunity to interview President Barack
Obama. “Live from the White House” is an initiative which provides
reporters outside of the Beltway a unique opportunity to cover the
President and the Administration.
Spanish language television anchors from Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles
and New Jersey/New York City were given the opportunity to broadcast
Tuesday from a special location on the South Lawn and attended briefings
with some of the President’s top advisers on issues that are important
to their Latino audiences like healthcare and immigration reform.
The reporters interviewed the President in the Blue Room,
where he made the case for bipartisan, commonsense immigration reform
which would be a big boost to our economy; offer a pathway to earned
citizenship for the 11 million individuals and modernize our legal
immigration system to make it more consistent with our values.
In the interviews, the President made clear the key
principles which must be a part of any bipartisan, commonsense effort,
including continuing to strengthen border security, creating an earned
path to citizenship, holding employers accountable, and bringing our
immigration system into the 21st century. Immigration reform has broad
bipartisan support from Democrats and Republicans, CEOs and labor
leaders, and law enforcement and faith leaders. Most importantly, it
has the support of the American people.
The Hispanic community cares deeply about a myriad of
issues facing our country and this audience is highly engaged on the
issue of immigration reform. During his interview with Telemundo Denver
anchor, Maria Rozmán, President Obama said the growing number of Latinos should be a source of pride for the country:
We know that 10 years from now, 20 years from
now, 30 years from now, there are going to be more people of Latino
heritage here in the United States, and that should be a source of pride
and a source of strength… Immigration is always difficult — it
always has been in this country. But what’s also been true is that this
is the thing that separated America from every other country on Earth.
It’s part of what makes us special, and we have to continue that
tradition by passing comprehensive immigration reform.
During the interviews, the President urged the House of
Representatives to take action and said he stands willing to work with
all parties to make sure that commonsense immigration reform becomes a
reality as soon as possible. The President along with other Senior
Administration officials emphasized that commonsense immigration reform
will reduce the deficit and grow the economy, and highlighted a recent White House report on the economic benefits of the Senate’s immigration reform legislation.
White House White Board: Why Immigration Reform is Good for the Economy
Spanish-language anchors also participated in a briefing
on the Affordable Care Act with officials from both the White House and
the Department of Health and Human Services. The Affordable Care Act
will provide 10.2 million uninsured Latino-Americans
an opportunity to get affordable health insurance coverage. More
information on Latinos and the Affordable Care Act is available here.
The Health Insurance Marketplace, where consumers can compare insurance
options in simple, easy to understand language, will open on October 1.
Information on the marketplaces is available in Spanish at CuidadodeSalud.gov.
The interviews are available at the web site for Univision and Telemundo.
I can hear heads exploding in the wingnutosphere.