2020 presidential long shot Julián Castro took aim at CNN and the New York Times for the topics that were addressed during Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential primary debate.
Castro, 45, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, took exception with the news outlets for failing to cover housing reform, homelessness, and immigration during the debate, which once again featured questions on healthcare.
He spoke with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes following the debate and began by saying he felt like the moderators missed foreign policy questions regarding North Korea and China, adding there were also “very significant gaps on the domestic side too.”
“I challenge CNN and the New York Times to ask, finally ask, about homelessness and housing,” Castro stated. “I tried to insert a little bit about that in some of my answers. But we talked about Ellen [DeGeneres] at the end. I know what the point of the question was, but we keep leaving some of these huge issues that impact families off of the question agenda at these debates. And really, it’s journalistic malpractice to do that.”
The MSNBC prime-time anchor then commented that the reason healthcare is brought up repeatedly during the debates is because “there are real lines of dispute quite crystal clear, right, about this question.” He asked Castro if the candidate felt voters are “as focused” on the topic.
“I think they’re focused on healthcare, sure,” Castro replied. “I think every family is focused on whether they have good healthcare or how they can get it. I also think that they’re focused on the fact that a lot of people can’t pay the rent, right? And so there are these sort of issues that are never touched on that intimately affect families every single day, that we just never get to.”
