{"id":226253,"date":"2026-05-10T10:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T10:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/226253\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T10:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T10:19:08","slug":"why-ana-navarro-has-enough-outrage-for-two-tv-jobs-and-a-new-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/226253\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ana Navarro has enough outrage for two TV jobs and a new podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When political commentator Ana Navarro recently arrived at Mercado Little Spain, the Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s-owned food hall downstairs from CNN\u2019s New York studios, a seat was ready for her constant companion, a rust-colored miniature poodle named ChaCha.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am her service human because I\u2019m servicing her all day,\u201d Navarro said of the well-behaved pooch who has been by her side since the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.<\/p>\n

As Navarro and a reporter order tapas dishes for the next two hours, patrons at nearby tables raise their cellphone cameras. Andr\u00e9s\u2019 daughter Carlota stops by and gives an update on her father, a Navarro pal. Later, a Spanish-speaking young woman comes over and thanks Navarro, a political exile from Nicaragua, for defending immigrants amid the aggressive deportation efforts of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

In a fragmented media world where critical mass is becoming harder to attain, Navarro has become one of media\u2019s most recognizable political talking heads thanks to her two high-profile TV roles. <\/p>\n

She is a co-host of ABC\u2019s \u201cThe View,\u201d the No. 1-rated daytime talk show that has become a target<\/a> in Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr\u2019s efforts to discipline President Trump\u2019s broadcast media critics. She is also a regular panelist on CNN\u2019s roundtable program \u201cNewsNight with Abby Phillip,\u201d which extends its reach far beyond its modest ratings through frequent viral clips on social media.<\/p>\n

In February, Navarro, 54, joined the growing list of media personalities who have launched a digital platform to reach consumers no longer watching traditional TV with a weekly podcast for iHeart called \u201cBleep! With Ana Navarro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navarro is her uncut self on \u201cBleep!\u201d She interviews guests but can also go into a 30-plus minute monologue without a script when she records at iHeart\u2019s midtown Manhattan studios, where ChaCha looks on from a cushy pillow.<\/p>\n

Navarro delivers her arguments against the Trump administration as if she\u2019s schmoozing with friends across a kitchen table. She always appears calm but as the podcast title suggests, she serves up a few four-letter words she doesn\u2019t use on TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cBleep!\u201d gives Navarro her own platform at a time when the legacy media networks she works at are under pressure. Upheaval is expected at CNN<\/a> if parent company Warner Bros. Discovery becomes a part of Paramount and its Trump-friendly owners David and Larry Ellison. <\/p>\n

Carr recently called for an early review of ABC\u2019s TV station licenses<\/a>. He said its related to an investigation into parent company Disney\u2019s diversity practices but it comes amid the administration\u2019s criticism of the network\u2019s Trump coverage, which has included \u201cThe View.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ana <\/p>\n

Ana Navarro on the set of ABC\u2019s \u201cThe View.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Lou Rocco (ABC))<\/p>\n

Navarro was pulled into the fray last year when she was approached by Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger at ABC\u2019s upfront advertiser presentation in New York. The huddle led to reports that they discussed the anti-Trump commentary on \u201cThe View.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an honest conversation but I\u2019m not going to tell you what it was,\u201d she said. \u201cNobody is muscling us. All I\u2019ve got to do is show up and do the same thing that I\u2019ve always done, which is be as truthful, and authentic and informed.\u201d<\/p>\n

(On Friday, ABC filed a petition with the FCC<\/a> over the agency\u2019s recent scrutiny of \u201cThe View,\u201d and whether the program qualifies for an exemption from seldom enforced equal time rules for political candidates. The network accused the FCC of actions violating its 1st Amendment right to free speech.)<\/p>\n

Navarro has been pounding at Trump for so long, it\u2019s hard to remember that her rise as a TV pundit began 14 years ago when she was a loyal conservative Republican. Jeff Zucker, who ran CNN from 2012 to 2022, said her personal evolution sets her apart from other pundits.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s funny, insightful, knows how to turn a phrase and she\u2019s gone on a political journey,\u201d Zucker said in a recent interview. \u201cSo she understands the entire political spectrum as well as anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navarro was eight years old in 1980 when her family fled Nicaragua and sought political asylum in the U.S. after the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front took power. Her father stayed behind to fight with the anti-communist rebel Contras in the country\u2019s civil war. <\/p>\n

\u201cReagan was taking on the Sandinistas when Bernie Sanders wasn\u2019t,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She was granted amnesty and became a U.S. citizen under the immigration reform bill signed by President Reagan in 1986.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Miami, Navarro was part of the enclave of Latinos whose political perspectives were shaped by having fled Fidel\u2019s Castro\u2019s Cuba and other communist regimes in Latin America. She became a political operative in Republican politics, starting in local Miami races and eventually served as national Hispanic chair for 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Her Cuban-born husband, Al Cardenas, was on Reagan\u2019s transition team and once led the Republican Party in Florida.<\/p>\n

Navarro watched in dismay in 2015 when Trump came down the escalator of the midtown Manhattan skyscraper that bears his name to announce he was seeking the Republican presidential nomination. \u201cCalling Mexicans rapists and criminals \u2014 that just hurt my heart,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

When Trump mocked a disabled journalist during a campaign rally, Navarro was reminded of family struggles with one of her older brothers, who has non-verbal autism and is self-injurious. \u201cThat brought back so much outrage and anger,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me that was a line I could never forgive.\u201d <\/p>\n

But being an anti-Trump Republican has become a lonelier job in recent years as the party establishment\u2019s support solidified behind Trump during the historically successful campaign in 2024 that returned him to the White House. For Navarro, it has meant the end of many long-standing relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lost some very close friends over Donald Trump,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve had to make peace with that. They feel that I\u2019ve betrayed the Republican Party. Some of them think I\u2019m an opportunist, doing this for today.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those friends is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who she\u2019s known her entire adult life. Navarro still has his cell number in her contacts, but it\u2019s been awhile since she\u2019s called. She still respects Rubio\u2018s credentials in foreign policy<\/a> but doesn\u2019t see herself ever supporting him if he runs for president.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless he was running against Satan incarnate, no, I would not go over to him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Navarro keeps her cool on \u201cNewsNight,\u201d which occasionally erupts into bedlam when guests clash with Scott Jennings, the show\u2019s resident MAGA Republican. But she misses the days of sparring with Democratic operative Donna Brazile when they were on opposing sides on CNN\u2019s Washington set, and then went out for oysters and wine at Old Ebbitt Grill afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a completely different world than it was,\u201d Navarro said.<\/p>\n

The highly self-confident Navarro has always spoken her mind, encouraged by her father and the Sacred Heart nuns who operated her private school in Miami where she still resides. \u201cThose nuns could run Fortune 500 companies,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

She is not afraid to draw on her own painful, personal experiences to deliver a point. Another older brother died of a heart attack at age 38. Her cousin\u2019s son was a fatality at the 2016 Pulse night club shooting in Orlando, Fla.<\/p>\n

\u201cI refuse to live in hopelessness and trauma,\u201d she said. \u201cThe things I\u2019ve gone through have shaped me into who I am and made me resilient and empathetic. One of the reasons I abhor Donald Trump is because he completely lacks empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where Navarro often separates herself from most Democrats is foreign policy. When Venezuela President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro was ousted and arrested by U.S. forces, Navarro, on holiday in Madrid, joined exiles from the country as they celebrated in Puerta del Sol.<\/p>\n

Navarro expects to have the same reaction if Trump makes good on his threats to end Cuba\u2019s communist regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will go out there with my metal pan and my metal spoon and I will bang the drums in joy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When political commentator Ana Navarro recently arrived at Mercado Little Spain, the Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s-owned food hall downstairs from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[66466,8367,88906,5058,4054,62896,34513,75,84,83,2713,9,24,88907,63,3039,1069,655,4107,16826,3442],"class_list":["post-226253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-abc","tag-ana-navarro","tag-bleep","tag-cnn","tag-cuba","tag-father","tag-friend","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-network","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nicaragua","tag-nyc","tag-part","tag-trump","tag-trump-administration","tag-u-s","tag-view","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}