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.
Just deflected as usual.
If you have to obfuscate and deflect in order to continue to support Trump, why is Trump worth supporting? Doesn't your conscience bother you at all?
No deflection at all. I have noticed you have participated in the chorus cheering the Cruz scandal, which at last look had no PROOF, what so ever. So why would you be angry of an allegation (unproven at this point of course) that Trump was behind it?
The TDS people here don’t care about evidence
“there’s more evidence that ties Trump to planting the story, than there is to the story itself tying anything to Cruz.”
Yeah, right, sure.
Case precedent says it is not illegal or actionable to report a rumor as a rumor. That is all NE did. They are too savvy to report it as truth because they would be sued for millions.
Your candidate, Cruz, is the king of obfuscation and deflection. He can’t open his mouth without accusing Trump of something.
He never could stand on his own two feet, drafted Trump and played all nice then rails against Trump non-stop. He can’t just campaign on issues because he’s a first term Senator with no real accomplishments and his issues are now just echoes of Trump.
Yeah, Amanda Carpenter tweeting ‘Daddy Cruz’ next to a photo of her children standing next to a TV with a still image of Ted Cruz on the Senate floor, whith the children holding a sign, “Daddy fighting for us”.
Yeah, no evidence at all......
Gotta love the MSM, they are trying to take down Trump with Cruz’s zipper problems
Notice how you and the GOPe are in on it as well?
What is it about Trump that frighten you guys so much?
How much money are you insiders going to lose?
Afraid that us PEONs will rise and take our country back?
So what difference will waiting until after the election is over make??
POLL RESULTS: WE ASKED 30,000 VOTERS IF THEY THOUGHT TED CRUZ HAD AN AFFAIR
30,274 voters responded to our online poll asking if the the ongoing Ted Cruz sex scandal is true or not.
At the time of posting 65% (19,678) of voters think Ted Cruz did have an affair while 35% (10,595) say Cruz did not have an affair.
Katrina Pierson was used to try to inoculate Trump from culpability. That failed.
And just what is the evidence against Cruz besides salacious unproven tabloid Twitter fodder? 100 hours now since this thing hit mainstream.. The longer it lingers, the worse this looks for Trump.
Roger Stone was not named as the source. He was only quoted saying that the rumors have been swirling around for months. If I were going to plant a story in the National Enquirer as a “dirty trick” why would I let myself be quoted? Chuck Todd and you have nothing tying this to Trump.
You didn’t answer the question.
“Katrina Pierson was used to try to inoculate Trump from culpability. That failed.”
True Cruzbot insanity
Again, what does Trump have to do with any of it?
the evidence has been pointing to the defunct Rubio camp for shopping this story around
Even the NE admits that the Trump camp had nothing to do with the story
Anthony Weiner’s story floated around for a week before they released the kill shot, let him sweat it out a bit, bait him then hang em
And I personally think Cruz would sacrifice his Presidential run to keep his wife and daughters from going through the media wringer filing a lawsuit would create.
If he files the lawsuit it becomes the story, the story that it is not. Much to Trump and Trump supporters chagrin. Because to cover why he is suing they than have to cover the story that he sued them for.
It stays where it is now it dies a painful agonizing death, to be discarded on the political junk heap of history where it belongs.
That’s hilarious. This site doesn’t have 30,000 followers. I just tried it and you can vote as many times as you want.
He never could stand on his own two feet, drafted Trump and played all nice then rails against Trump non-stop. He can’t just campaign on issues because he’s a first term Senator with no real accomplishments and his issues are now just echoes of Trump.
You are correct, "blame Trump", is becoming all too common as a part of the Ted Cruz campaign. It's only proving that Ted Cruz is a terrible candidate (and I was once a Ted Cruz supporter but no more).
CGato
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.