Cruz Shreds Media for Wanting 'Coronation' of Trump as GOP Nominee So He Can Lose to Hillary

NewsBusters ^ | March 6, 2016 | Curtis Houck

[SoConPubbie]

Republican presidential candidate and Senator Ted Cruz (Tex.) sat for an interview with CBS’s John Dickerson Friday afternoon in National Harbor, Maryland that aired on Face the Nation and lambasted the media for “hav[ing] a coronation” of Donald Trump as the GOP nominee so he could be viciously defeated by Hillary Clinton in November. 

While discussing the possibility of a brokered Republican National Convention, Cruz pointed to how he’s remained close to Trump in the delegate count but at the same time, “the media wants to just have a coronation” of Trump “because the media knows Donald can't win the general, that Hillary would wallop him.”

Dickerson was unsuccessful in interjecting while Cruz continued to rip the media’s well documented attempts to push Trump on Republican primary voters despite what many foresee as a less than fruitful result for the party in November:

Donald may be the only person on the face of the planet that Hillary Clinton can beat and all of the attacks on Donald that the media is not talking about now, you better believe, come September, October, November, if he were the nominee, every day on the nightly news would be taking Donald apart and the stakes are too high for us to risk that.

The CBS News political director eventually forced his way in and offered the measly defense that the media collective didn’t believe that Trump would “get this far” and Cruz agreed that few saw Trump coming, but added that once Trump rose to the top, the liberal media have done all they could to hang on his every word:

The media has given Donald Trump hundreds of millions of dollars of free advertising. When you put Donald — when every press conference is carried live on every television station, and you essentially have a massive in-kind contribution from the media, that’s helped create this phenomenon[.]

Similarly to how Democrat Hillary Clinton surprised Dickerson when she admitted she was pleased a former staffer was granted immunity by the FBI to cooperate in her private e-mail server investigation, Cruz dropped this hammer on Dickerson by touting rumors he’s heard that reporters have numerous negative stories on Trump that they’ve held off on publishing:

CRUZ: I think an awful lot of reporters — I can't tell you how many media outlets I hear, you know, have this great expose on Donald, on different aspects of his business dealings, or his past, but they said, you know what, we're going to hold it to June or July. We're not going to run it now.

DICKERSON: You're saying reporters have told you that? They have told —

CRUZ: Absolutely. We have gotten multiple —

DICKERSON: — and from which organizations have they told you?

CRUZ: You know, look, I'm not going to out media outlets, but I can tell you there is so much there. When was the last time people are bringing up his tax returns, for example? We had a debate last night, didn't hear a word about his tax returns. 

Again defending the media’s handling of Trump, Dickerson complained that Cruz himself “could have brought” these matters to the surface and Cruz noted that he has plus other figures like Mitt Romney who’s suggested that there’s a “bombshell” in Trump’s tax returns. 

At the conclusion of the two-part interview, Cruz maintained:

You know, I promise you, come the general election, that will be the singular focus of the media and I think Republicans, we have been burned by that before. We're not interested in losing again, particularly when the stakes, I think, are catastrophic.

Editor’s Note: This writer attended the event in which this taped interview was conducted.

The relevant portion of the transcript from CBS’s Face the Nation on March 6 can be found below.

CBS’s Face the Nation
March 6, 2016
10:51 a.m. Eastern

JOHN DICKERSON: But any of these conversations in terms of jointly acting to deny him, not coming together behind Ted Cruz?

REPUBLICAN SENATOR TED CRUZ (Tex.): Look, my focus is very simple. It is on winning 1,237 delegates to be the Republican nominee. We are on a path to do so. Coming out of Super Tuesday, fewer than a hundred delegates separate Donald Trump and me and so as much as the media wants to just have a coronation and, listen, frankly, one of the reasons the media wants Donald to be the nominee is because the media knows Donald can't win the general, that Hillary would wallop him.

DICKERSON: But the media —

CRUZ: Donald may be the only person on the face of the planet that Hillary Clinton can beat and all of the attacks on Donald that the media is not talking about now, you better believe, come September, October, November, if he were the nominee, every day on the nightly news would be taking Donald apart and the stakes are too high for us to risk that.

DICKERSON: The media also thought that he wasn't going to get this far, so, that's hardly —

CRUZ: That's true at first, but let's be clear. The media has given Donald Trump hundreds of millions of dollars of free advertising. When you put Donald — when every press conference is carried live on every television station, and you essentially have a massive in-kind contribution from the media, that’s helped create this phenomenon and then I think an awful lot of reporters — I can't tell you how many media outlets I hear, you know, have this great expose on Donald, on different aspects of his business dealings, or his past, but they said, you know what, we're going to hold it to June or July. We're not going to run it now.

DICKERSON: You're saying reporters have told you that? They have told —

CRUZ: Absolutely. We have gotten multiple —

DICKERSON: — and from which organizations have they told you?

CRUZ: You know, look, I'm not going to out media outlets, but I can tell you there is so much there. When was the last time people are bringing up his tax returns, for example? We had a debate last night, didn't hear a word about his tax returns. Every other serious candidate —

DICKERSON: Well, you could have brought it up.

CRUZ: I could have and I do often, but as Mitt Romney rightly observed, the fact that Donald won't hand over his tax returns suggests there's a bombshell in there. The fact that journalists are not raising the question of what Donald Trump told The New York Times editorial board, the reports are —

DICKERSON: But the journalists brought it up, which gave you the platform to talk about it. So, surely they are. BuzzFeed wrote about it, so they are talking about it.

CRUZ: You know, I promise you, come the general election, that will be the singular focus of the media and I think Republicans, we have been burned by that before. We're not interested in losing again, particularly when the stakes, I think, are catastrophic.

[nopardons]

It wasn't an "insinuation".

And the ONLY people who "heard" it that way, were those who WANTED to hear what was neither said nor implied.

[DoughtyOne]

That’s my take as well, but some folks (and I do it too sometimes) get an idea in their head and can’t let go. The Cruz folks dismiss this talk. I probably would too. I’m pretty thick headed when I want to be. “:^)

Thanks for the nice response.

I agree, Hillary plays by her own set of rules. Trump rewrites rules on the fly. Good luck bee och! “:^)

[nopardons]

You are 100% correct!

[gov_bean_ counter]

Your opinion. I have mine.

[DoughtyOne]

No, he hasn’t, but I hear he has cancelled an appearance with what seems like may have been another misfit.

So good for him there, catching on before the damage was done.

How does he get in these predicaments?

[JediJones]

The video is here. Great interview! Ted looking as presidential as ever and totally consistent on the issues.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/extended-interview-ted-cruz-march-6/

[RitaOK]

TRUMP supporters are telepathic.

We actually *knew*, exactly, what his remark meant and encompassed. Our security laws stink, if you need a break down. Go figure.

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t like seeing him take advantage of Romney and the willingness of the GOPe to corrupt the process for him, by default.

Under normal circumstances, every knows they don’t want him either. None the less he’ll watch them carve up Trump, just missing completely that he will be carved up next.

He should avoid being a part of that, first because it’s wrong, and secondly because he’s a fool to think he’ll be spared the same treatment.

[jonrick46]

Romney and Cruz may think there is a “bombshell” in Trump’s tax returns. The problem is, how can you defend yourself against a negative. A “bombshell” may be actually be a fizzle and an attempt to blow smoke. The litany of smears against Trump are a desperate attempt to get the electorate clutching pearls over an imaginary goblin in the closet.

[JediJones]

If you get people who don’t vote on policy, you’re going to get bad policy, or the policy elites and the upper class like Trump want.

Voting on emotion, just like doing anything in life based on emotion, is a recipe for disaster and huge regrets later on.

If Trump had ideas on how to fix the country, he’d offer them. Instead he offers no substance and just lobs insults and attacks at people. That stirs up “anger” in people. I can’t think of a worse quality to inspire in people than anger. And I can’t think of a worse quality for a leader to have. Voting on anger alone is how you get a vindictive strongman in office who tramples on human rights.

[nopardons]

Most posters not only have never seen Hillary "debate" Rick Lazio, they've NEVER even heard of him.

I saw the "debate". I know Lazio's history. Cruz isn't even as good as Lazio, in debating, and Hillary tore through him like a hot knife through butter, in seconds.

In order to win an election, it's usually the "likable" one who wins; except when BIG bribes are handed out and lots of voter fraud is committed.

Cruz is not "likable".

[nopardons]

Everyone has an opinion; facts are always FACTS. *snicker*

[nopardons]

He gets into them easily; apparently.

Cruz is a LOUSY judge of people!

[jonrick46]

The Lamestream Media think they will put Trump to the pillory and take him down. Cruz will be next after the Media have strengthened their whipping arms on Trump. So far, Cruz has been given a free ride.

[RitaOK]

TRUMP is getting some serious or strong vibes evidently of Romney and a Third Party.

This may be why they are leading Cruz down the cherry path, but with every intention of a quick and easy dispatch of him, with a Third Party induction.

Cruz is no *movement* candidate, that’s a given, so he is low cost kill. TRUMP owns all the Revolutionaries and he is dreaded.

Nobody dreads Cruz but his friends. LOL!!

[nopardons]

Cruz has NEVER offered any substantial, detailed policy, at a debate EVER, in the 11 debates, thus far!

From past history, Cruz is on pretty shakey ground, when it comes to TPA, the Corker Bill, the MISSISSIPPI scandal, his lies, and more.

It is you, Ted's supporters who are all emotion and no logic.

And FYI.....Trump isn't an "elite", he won't do things for the "policy elites", and you have NO idea what you're talking about!

Trump has a lot of ideas about how to "fix" this nation; you don't know any of them, because you EMOTIONALLY BLOCK THEM OUT!

Cruz is NOT an "outsider" at all, he falls in line at the twitch of an eyebrow from the likes of Mitch the turtle and then whinges about it. Sessions advised him NOT to, but Teddy did it anyway. A vote for Cruz is a vote for any Bush!

[RitaOK]

TRUMP has already succeeded. He just skipped the part where he was suppose to walk into the trap.

Policy weeds in a primary are a trap, especially for an outsider, a citizen candidate.

He skipped the old school approach and the mutual patty cakes, and simply went for the throat. It fits the times, the mood and certainly the sorry state of affairs, but apparently only with the revolutionaries and not so much the Establishment types. Thank goodness we outnumber them. Throw Cruz in with them. I did some time ago. Not digging Heidi, or her finger prints.

[MHT]

Ted is such a distraction from getting the job done.

[DoughtyOne]

Likability is a strange thing. You and I see Ted one way, and the Cruz folks see him entirely differently.

He talks and they are endeared to him. He talks and all I hear are fingernails on a chalkboard.

I honestly get the urge to turn the channel the moment I hear his voice. Instinctively without even thinking I’ll reach for the volume and have to stop myself.

What can I say.

[DoughtyOne]

Well, Glenn, his campaign manager, and now this event dude... something’s up.