MIAMI – The arrest of Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla on Thursday in a series of corruption charges got national attention from ABC daytime talk show “The View.”
In the final 45 seconds of the program, co-host Ana Navarro found time to call out the commissioner — her comments were fiery and personal.
Navarro, a Miami resident, recounted an encounter she claimed she had with Diaz de la Portilla more than two decades ago.
“So yesterday, the city of Miami commissioner got indicted — his name is Alex Diaz de la Portilla — for bribery and corruption and that’s a man who, 25 years ago, screamed racial slurs at me in a drunken tirade,” Navarro said. “He called me an ‘arrow thrower,’ an ‘Indian,’ I guess because I was born Nicaraguan and he was born a white Cuban. And now he’s going to jail. And I’m on national TV talking about you.”
As she celebrated the commissioner’s arrest by smiling and snapping her finger in the air, the audience erupted in applause.
Co-host Joy Behar chimed in at the end of the episode, thanking the audience for being there and then adding: “My mother used to say” ‘Don’t spit up in the air. It comes back in your face. ' "
Before becoming a television personality, Navarro, 51, made her career as a longtime Republican political strategist but started to break with the party after the nomination of then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016. While city offices are officially nonpartisan, Diaz de la Portilla, 58, is also a Republican.
Navarro also made posts to Instagram and X, the social networking site formerly known as Twitter, calling Diaz de la Portilla a “thug” and a “racist piece of (poop emoji).”
One of the replies to her posts came from Art Acevedo, whose brief, tumultuous tenure as chief of the Miami Police Department was capped off by controversial remarks stating the city was controlled by a “Cuban mafia.” That sparked a public feud with the three Cuban-American members of the city commission, which included Diaz de la Portilla.
Acevedo, 59, also a Cuban-American, told Navarro “With every passing passing day, and every passing week, and every passing month, justice is being served.”
With every passing day, and every passing week, and every passing month justice is being served.
— Chief Art Acevedo (@ArtAcevedo) September 14, 2023
Diaz de la Portilla, whose charges include money laundering and bribery, has denied allegations of wrongdoing.