Posted on 03/28/2016 4:11:45 PM PDT by conservativejoy
NBC anchor Chuck Todd isn’t buying the National Enquirer hit piece on Ted Cruz. On the March 27 edition of Meet the Press, Todd commented that “there’s more evidence that ties Trump to planting the story, than there is to the story itself tying anything to Cruz.”
Todd also accused Trump of taking a page out of the “LBJ playbook.” Discussing the story with NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, Todd retorted that “Trump is almost trying to borrow a page from the LBJ playbook, when he put out a statement on the National Enquirer – let me put it up here. He basically said, ‘I hope that story's not true,’ but also trying to fan the flames. Hey, look, the National Enquirer got it right on Edwards, got it right on O.J. Simpson, I hope they’re wrong about – and then he throws in ‘lyin’ Ted Cruz’. This is – this is a sort of ‘make him deny it’ type of LBJ thing.”
NBC has consistently done a superior job of pointing out the many reasons to doubt the Enquirer story. In her reporting on Friday's NBC Nightly News and Saturday's Today show, NBC correspondent Hallie Jackson went further than her ABC and CBS colleagues in alerting viewers to the tabloid’s utter lack of evidence, its past boosting of Trump, and the categorical denials of two of the women linked to Cruz in the story.
On ABC's This Week, fill-in moderator Jonathan Karl did not match Todd's explicit skepticism of the Enquirer piece, but twice pressed Trump himself on the story:
JONATHAN KARL: Do you categorically guarantee that nobody on your campaign, nobody tied to your campaign, had anything to do with this National Enquirer story?
TRUMP: Totally. I had nothing to do with it....
KARL: But let me ask you, this story, this that we see in the National Enquirer, this kind of rumor mongering, should this kind of thing just be off limits? Do you condemn this story?
TRUMP: I don't care. I mean really I don't care. The National Enquirer did a story. It was their story. It wasn't my story. It was about Ted Cruz. I have no idea whether it was right or not.
Overall, ABC's This Week gave the sleazy tabloid story 2 minutes, 47 seconds of airtime, compared with 1 minute, 36 seconds on Meet the Press.
CBS’s Face the Nation didn’t touch on the controversy at all, which is consistent with CBS News’s recent history of giving much less air time (2 minutes) to this story on the morning and evening new shows over the weekend than either ABC or NBC did (7 and 6 minutes, respectively).
Transcript from Meet the Press on March 27:
CHUCK TODD: Hallie, this all came in Cruz world a little bit – you know – my this escalated quickly.
HALLIE JACKSON: Yeah.
TODD: But I guess, sort of, what happened here? And how did this go from this, I guess, a Super PAC's digital ad get turned into what it got turned into.
JACKSON: Right. And to look at the progression, as you noted, of what we've seen this week, Tuesday we're talking about this terror attack and candidates' responses to it, Saturday we're talking about the National Enquirer and the tabloid cover story that's out there. I think that this shows Donald Trump is able to shift the conversation with a single tweet. And the tweet that came out retweeting this image of Heidi Cruz next to Melania trump was stunning to, I think, the Cruz campaign. I think Ted Cruz was stunned and very emotional about this even before you started talking about the Enquirer story. And, I think that one of the things that Ted Cruz has been hit on he seems a little bit rehearsed, sometimes, a little bit inauthentic, that's a knock against him. Right now, he is emotional, he’s mad, and he’s showing it.
...
TODD: But it is, and Andrea, final thing, what was amazing, Trump is almost trying to borrow a page from the LBJ playbook, when he put out a statement on the National Enquirer – let me put it up here. He basically said, I hope that story's not true, but also trying to fan the flames. Hey, look, the National Enquirer got it right on Edwards, got it right on OJ Simpson, I hope they’re wrong about – and then he throws in ‘lyin’ Ted Cruz’. This is – this is a sort of ‘make him deny it’ type of LBJ thing.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Exactly. And, of course, as Hallie’s been reporting, and as Katy's been reporting he’s got a very close relationship with the people of National Enquirer. They are really – and they’ve endorsed him, so –
TODD: There's more evidence that ties Trump to planting the story than there is to the story itself tying anything to Cruz.
MITCHELL: Like, I hope this is not true, and then tell me everything about it. It has been a remarkable, extraordinary period and, as I say, at a time when he should be vulnerable on foreign policy.
Boomerang.
NBC and other networks are the new tabloids. They can’t let this crap go not even to look at Hillary who’s exposed the nation to extreme danger with her recklessness.
Falling back on Chuck Todd? Lame.
Maybe Chuck needs to come to FR and see the same unsubstantiated gossip reposted from 50 different blogs. Then he’ll be as convinced as some of our fellow Freepers.
While the Cruz-bots around here are trying to pin this on Trump, how about if Cruz were to actually ... I don’t know ... SAY NOTHING HAPPENED?
(that would seem to be the end of things)
I sure have not heard that yet.
Trump: Cruz started ‘garbage’ but let’s move on (Savage interview)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3414859/posts
Everyone in politics knows the Rubio people were pushing this story months ago. Toddy is lying out his a**
Why would Trump include Katrina Pierson in the story if he wants the story to have legs?
what’s the evidence that Todd is talking about?
I see Todd make the statement, but Todd provides no evidence.
The establishment and it’s media arm will go to whatever lengths are necessary to keep their candidate in the race.
“Why would Trump include Katrina Pierson in the story if he wants the story to have legs?”
Exactly, you wouldn’t include your spokeswomen.
The only reason for this is Todd knows Ted would lose to Clinton. I know you are not stupid.
Google is your friend:
“Let me be clear: This National Enquirer story is garbage,” Cruz said, unprompted by questions from any reporters, in an on-camera statement in Wisconsin, where the candidate is campaigning before the April 5 primary there. “It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear.”
The Full Media/Uni Party have embraced Teddy as their weapon to take down Trump, and CruzRats on Free Republic have joined them.
“Let me be clear: This National Enquirer story is garbage,” Cruz said, unprompted by questions from any reporters, in an on-camera statement in Wisconsin, where the candidate is campaigning before the April 5 primary there. “It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear.”
Why no LAWSUIT?
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