In his program “Argenzuela” (Radio 10), Jorge Rial reacted harshly to the video in which Javier Milei is seen making “strange gestures” with the fingers of one hand: “We have a President with problems. We already knew it. Let’s not complain nor laugh… We are governed by a guy with mental problems who was democratically elected,” he said in direct allusion to the instability that, in his opinion, the president shows.
Rial went further and criticized Karina Milei: “Her sister… doesn’t know how to speak. Maybe for her role it is not necessary to speak. To chore it is not necessary to speak”, and accompanied the comment with the gesture of “3”, in clear reference to the accusations of alleged bribes linked to the Spagnuolo case. These complaints – which include versions of percentages of returns in contracts – are being investigated and were broadcast in audios whose scope and veracity are in the process of being verified.
It is not new: Rial has been distancing himself and criticizing Milei for some time—even in a video that went viral in which he asked him to “get out of the runoff”—so his comments this week are part of a sustained and public criticism against the president.
The tension between the two is not new. Already in 2021, when Milei was beginning to gain media visibility, Rial had described him as “a dangerous character” and questioned his emergence into politics with a speech “based on hate and provocation.” Later, during the 2023 presidential campaign, the journalist made fun of his television appearances on several occasions and publicly asked him to get out of the runoff. Since then, their crossings have been repeated from time to time, marking a media feud that combines ideological, personal and communication style differences.
The host’s tone once again brings to the fore two questions that cross the public agenda: to what extent the personality and gestures of a president condition governability, and to what extent accusations about the environment (even when they are still under investigation) impact political legitimacy.
