Popular sportscaster Luis Moreno Jr., who for almost a decade worked as half of the Spanish-language broadcast team covering Carolina Panthers games, says he’s out of a job because he is a Trump supporter.
The 42-year broadcaster told the Charlotte Observer that after he became a fan of President Trump earlier this year and began advocating for the president online, team officials contacted him and asked him to delete any references to the Panthers from his personal social media accounts.
He said he complied, but continued to express support for Mr. Trump and his reelection on social media.
When the new NFL season rolled around on Sunday, Mr. Moreno, a Mexican immigrant who’d recently become an American citizen, had been replaced in the broadcast booth.
Mr. Moreno’s annual contract went unrenewed, without explanation from the team or the radio network producing the broadcast, after he told his bosses this summer that “if what they want me to do is stop supporting the president, I’m not gonna do that,” according to the Charlotte Observer.
“I’m hurt,” he told the paper, “because this has nothing to do with my performance on-air .., None of my support for the president was done on any of their social-media pages, it was never done on any of the airtime — whether it was a podcast or a broadcast or anything related to the Panthers. This was solely on my personal time on my personal accounts.”
He said he plans to vote in November.
“I think that it goes without saying that this is one of the most important elections in our lifetime.”
Panthers owner David Tepper, a billionaire hedge fund manager, has been openly critical of Mr. Trump several times over the years, referring to the president as a “demented, narcissistic scumbag.”
• David Eldridge can be reached at deldridge@washingtontimes.com.
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