Rick Sanchez

In the days after the incident, Sanchez apologized several times. In an appearance on Good Morning America, Sanchez told George Stephanopoulos: "I said some things I shouldn't have said. They were wrong. Not only were they wrong, they were offensive." He added, "I apologize and it was wrong for me to be so careless and so inartful. ... But it happened and I can’t take it back and, you know what, now I have to stand up and be responsible."

Sanchez began hosting a new show on RT America in October 2018.

Yeah, very powerless people. [laughs] He's such a minority. I mean, you know, please. What—are you kidding? I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart. And to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority?

In 2013, Sanchez returned to South Florida with a weekday show on Clear Channel affiliate WIOD 610 AM radio. Replacing Todd Schnitt in afternoon drive time, Sanchez did a stint on a morning show, that led into The Rush Limbaugh Show. Due to low ratings, Sanchez is no longer on the radio, as of October 2015.

Rick Sanchez returned to cable news as a columnist on Fox News Latino in September 2012. Sanchez was offered a short term employment with the website. Since joining Fox News Latino, he has appeared on the Fox News Channel as a contributor. He also started as a news contributor for MundoFox at the end of 2012.

In 2011, Sanchez visited Israel as part of an ADL-sponsored trip for Latino journalists. Sanchez spoke at the ADL's National Executive Committee Meeting in 2012, where Sanchez recounted, "the long and unexpected voyage ... [and] personal journey that led me to a man I now call a friend: Abe Foxman, who has led me to know myself and led me to grow in unexpected ways."

On July 27, 2011, The Washington Post reported that Sanchez had started a job as a radio announcer for Florida International University. Starting in September 2011, Sanchez provided analysis of the FIU football team.

After some years as the lead local anchor on Miami's WSVN, Sanchez moved to cable news, first as a daytime anchor at MSNBC, later at CNN, where he began as a correspondent and ultimately rose to become an anchor. On CNN, he hosted his own show Rick's List and served as a contributor to Anderson Cooper 360° and CNN International, where he frequently reported and translated between English and Spanish. Sanchez was fired from CNN on October 1, 2010, following controversial remarks he made on a radio program. In July 2011, Sanchez was hired by Florida International University, to serve as a color commentator for radio broadcasts of the school's football team. Since October 2018, he has hosted News with Rick Sanchez on RT America.

On CNN, Sanchez filed domestic and international reports. For eight months, in the interim between Paula Zahn and Campbell Brown, he anchored Out in the Open at 8 p.m ET. On January 18, 2010, he began to host his own two-hour show in the afternoons, Rick's List, where he invited viewers to share their opinions and questions via social media. His use of social networking tools to create a citizen-driven news program was recognized by the Newseum in Washington, D.C. After the cancellation of Campbell Brown's show, Sanchez again took over the 8 p.m. EST slot with an evening version of Rick's List, which continued until the premier of Parker Spitzer.

On September 30, 2010, Sanchez was interviewed on Sirius XM's radio show Stand Up With Pete Dominick. Sanchez's interview occurred on the final day of his show in the 8 p.m. time slot, and he was reported to be angry about being replaced by CNN's new Parker Spitzer talk show as well as the occasional jokes made at his expense on The Daily Show:

Sanchez personally apologized to Stewart. He released a statement expressing regret for his "inartful" comments, adding "I am very much opposed to hate and intolerance, in any form, and I have frequently spoken out against prejudice." On October 20, 2010, Jon Stewart told Larry King that Sanchez should not have been fired for what Sanchez said in the radio interview; Stewart called the firing "absolute insanity", and stating that he was not "personally hurt".

In late 2010, Orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach held a public event at Manhattan's Carlebach Synagogue with Sanchez, and commented: "Our community has enough problems without looking for anti-Semitism where it doesn't exist. Rick Sanchez was humiliated and his reputation dragged through the mud. ... The Jewish religion says that a man's most cherished possession is his good name. Rick deserves the opportunity to reclaim his." Sanchez and Rabbi Boteach spoke for nearly two hours.

Of his childhood Sanchez has said: "I grew up not speaking English, dealing with real prejudice every day as a kid; watching my dad work in a factory, wash dishes, drive a truck, get spit on. I've been told that I can't do certain things in life simply because I was a Hispanic." He prefers to be called Rick Sanchez rather than use his birth name. He said in a newscast in 2009: "I want to be respectful of this wonderful country that allowed us as Hispanics to come here, and I think it's easier if someone's able to understand me by Anglicizing my name."

In 2003, Sanchez left MSNBC to return to the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale TV market, where he hosted a local talk show on WTVJ. Sanchez later anchored on then-WB affiliated WBZL (now WSFL) until he joined CNN in 2004. He won an Emmy Award in 1983 for his series titled When I left Cuba.

On December 10, 1990, Sanchez, driving home, struck a man who jumped into the path of Sanchez's car. The man became paralyzed after being hit.

Sanchez began his broadcasting career at WCCO's satellite sister station KCMT (now KCCO-TV) in Alexandria, Minnesota, while still in college. He was hired at then-NBC affiliate WSVN (formerly WCKT) in Miami in 1982 and became a weekend anchor shortly thereafter. In 1986, Sanchez left WSVN for CBS affiliate KHOU in Houston, then two years later, he returned to WSVN and began an afternoon anchor position with the station, which would switch its affiliation to Fox the following year. Sanchez was hired at MSNBC in 2001.

Sanchez was born in Guanabacoa, Cuba, a township of Havana, and emigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of two. He grew up in Hialeah, Florida, a suburb of Miami, and attended Mae M. Walters Elementary School, Henry H. Filer Middle School, and Hialeah High School, graduating in 1977. Sanchez accepted a football scholarship to Minnesota State University Moorhead and transferred to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on a CBS/WCCO Journalism Scholarship in 1979.

Ricardo León Sánchez de Reinaldo (born July 3, 1958) is a Cuban-American journalist, radio host, and author. He is an RT America contributor, and was previously a columnist for Fox News and Fox News Latino, and a former correspondent for Spanish language network Mundo Fox.