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.
Why no lawsuit by Cruz? Beats me. If it was me, it would be pretty hard to prove that the NE reports of a rumor were false. I’m guessing that the NE DID hear rumors.
Or maybe Cruz is waiting on filing lawsuits. Say for when Trump files his lawsuit against Cruz for his citizenship.
Or cheating in Iowa.
Or stealing delegates in Louisiana.
Aaaaaand?
We don't assign innocence or guilt in this country by polling 30,000 random idiots.
What percentage of the same brain trust think that BatBoy is real?
That’s if the National Enquirer, ‘Shot its wad’, I think there will be more evidence this week, otherwise you are probably right.
This tweet was done when the attack on Cruz’s little girls was done by the Washington Post. That is why he got the moniker “Daddy Cruz”. How about checking contest before jumping to conclusions.
American Media Inc(National Enquirer parent company) spokesperson responds to @tedcruz allegations: pic.twitter.com/exZz3AR5rB— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) March 25, 2016
“If English is your first language, saying that the stories are false IS A DENIAL!”
If you are a lawyer it is a nuanced denial.
“It’s garbage” can mean “it ends up in the garbage can so is by definition ‘garbage’” if you are a lawyer.
Everything in his statement could have a meaning for normal folks, but deserves a different standard because he is a lawyer, trained in nuanced wording - and specifically trained in wording things so that a jury will think the way he wants them to think, not necessarily as an expression of truth.
It’s not beyond the pale to say “what do you mean ted?”
“what’s the evidence that Todd is talking about?
I see Todd make the statement, but Todd provides no evidence.”
There is no evidence. However there is the $500K money transfer.
No candidate wants the focus on a lawsuit instead of the issues. Well, no candidate but Donald Trump. Right now Cruz is focused on winning the election. He has three years to file a lawsuit against Roger Stone.
Democratmedia use any slight hope to attack Trump. Nothing new here.
Trump has no need to do this even if he could, he is crushing Cruz so why bother.
In you guys’ world EVERYTHING revolves around Trump. Hysterical.
BTW how could Cruz win a general election with a semi-socialist electorate when he is being crushed by a semi-conservative electorate.
I have repeatedly asked this of Cruz folks and never had even an attempt to explain how this could be.
Kudos for having the guts to change candidates. Many hang in till the bitter end rather than admit they got duped.
I was once a Cruz supporter myself.
Don't come down too hard on them since it probably is not. From what has been reported in the National Enquirer, Trump hires nothing but illegal immigrants to do his Goebbels astro-turfing work.
He said the story was false. For those of you who are just learning English, that means it is not true.
What a load of crap. Todd has never been seen as anything but a laughingstock and says NOTHING positive about Trump.
War came to Chicago and Cruz joined the Enemy.
I always turn to Chuck Todd for enlightenment. LOL!
Cruz beats Hillary in the polls and Donald loses..badly. Trump has the highest unfavorable ratings of any Presidential candidate in history. I think he got into the race to help elect Hillary.
Most Trump supporters are ordinary, patriotic Americans who have watched as the Democratmedia/left has tried to destroy him. Yet, he has kicked all their asses and will continue to do so.
Trump is a FIGHTER and his supporters are too.
War came to Chicago and Cruz joined the Enemy.
I don’t think there is a chance that Trump will be elected, but then we have had Obama for two terms. Trump is emotionally unstable, is dangerously undisciplined and uninformed on the issues. He is not someone I want in charge of our security or anything else that affects this nation.
There is a vast difference between patriotic Americans and Goebbel cloned brownshirt thugs.
I'm beginning to wonder if everything Ted Cruz did in the Senate was just Kabuki Theater.
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.