An NBC moderator tried to steal the show during the first Democratic presidential debate Wednesday night.
Jose Diaz Balart, an anchor at NBC-owned Telemundo, opened a section of the debate on U.S. border policy with an unusually dramatic performance decrying recent news of insufficient housing for migrants.
“There are undocumented children being held alone in detention,” Diaz-Balart said with an emotional flair. “Even as close as Homestead, Florida, right here, less than 30 miles from where we are tonight. Fathers and mothers and children are dying while trying to enter the United States of America.”
“We saw that image today that broke our hearts and they had names,” he continued, before reading the names of migrants who’ve died with a harsh Hispanic pronunciation. “Oscar Martinez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria died trying to cross the river to ask for asylum in this country.”
Eventually, he got to asking his question: “Last month, more than 130,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border. Secretary Castro, if you were president today, what would you specifically do?”