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.

[WhiskeyX]

Constitution...No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.... United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, 18 S.Ct. 456, 42 L.Ed. “A person born out of the jurisdiction of the United States can only become a citizen by being naturalized....” Ted Cruz was born in Canada and out of the jurisdiction of the United States. Ted Cruz is a naturalized U.S. citizen at best, and he is not and can never be a natural born citizen.

[Catsrus]

Any candidate can take them. Have you ever heard of voter fraud? Yes, it exists and I think there is shaving of numbers going on in these primaries. No one polls at 14-17%, and then wins by such a large margin. There are lawyers looking into this right now.

[Catsrus]

Better yet, why has Ted sealed so many of his records? What is he hiding? Only people who have something to hide do this. This is just another thing he has in common with obama.

[native texan]

Is Cruz in the same time warp that I am? Oh if this was so. The establishment and media have done everything in the books to prevent Trump from going forward.

[Patriot Babe]

In her own words she states that she supports The Task Force Report. I find it ironic that this North American crap, that one of the main men who is running for president just happens to be a Canadian who just happens to NOT know he held a Canadian Citizenship. Makes me wonder if Cruz wants to be the first President of North America.

[Patriot Babe]

I got it thank you..just wow!

[erkelly]

Not to mention since Donald Trump gets audited every year, not only is he going to get the best legal advice there is and follow it to the letter, but he is going to be very careful, very precise, and very thorough in the preparation of his returns.

[erkelly]

Isn’t it interesting also, in light of what you said, that Cruz was born in Canada and was (and maybe still is) a Canadian citizen, as well as Hispanic/Cuban, not to mention a British subject? We really should not be voting for Cruz, we are certainly opening the door to the point the CoC of the US military might someday be, not just be a dual citizen born in another country, but not born in this country and not a US citizen at all?

[erkelly]

May I suggest you visit Trump’s website. There are a number of policy papers there that describe what he wants to do to fix things. In addition, he has promised that there are more forthcoming.

[Smokin' Joe]

You’re Welcome!

[x_plus_one]

Ted cant win the states the dems need for victory. Florida, PA and Ohio are the only three non blue states that the dems need and Ted has nothing to sell that they are buying.

[erkelly]

It is very possible! The Republican party, based on Article II of the constitution, which sets the qualifications for President, can strip Cruz of his delegates as he only meets 2 of the 4 requirements (he has lived in the US for 14 years, and he is over age 35) but he was not born in this country and his father was not a citizen. They can take Rubio’s delegates too for the same 2 reasons.

Do you really think Romney or Bush would not do this?

[SubMareener]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416095/ted-cruzs-not-so-secret-weapon-his-wife-joel-gehrke

[virginia9000]

I'm beginning to think Cruz is despicable!

[Smokin' Joe]

Okay. Let me get this straight.

If Cruz attacks the media, he is despicable.

If he doesn't attack he is a "p*ssy".

Or maybe some people just can't be satisfied no matter what a person does.

[grania]

Go Cruz!

You do realize that the elitists can pull the plug at any time by shopping for an agreeable judge to declare Cruz not a natural born citizen, don't you? You do realize that Romney is the designated loser because he's so good at it, don't you? You do realize that if we are denied, the elitists will decide that voters don't matter, and usurp even more rights and wealth from the middle class, don't you?

Assuming you realize all of that, where do you want Cruz to go?

[Rome2000]

Yeah, Misissipians just love themselves Cuban faggot midgets.

He’s got the state sewn up.

[grania]

SPREAD THE WORLD !!! Folks have got to follow this rather complicated stuff to understand what is going on.

[MagnoliaB]

Poor Ted is right, he’s delusional. Does he really think they have dredged up Mittens just for Trumps sake? They will NEVER let little Teddy have the nomination. Trump is the only one that can beat Hitlery in spite of the propaganda polls they keep putting out there because he’s the ONLY one that will say the things that need to be said. Both parties have proved how evil they are. They are maneuvering Mittens as the nominee. Hope Trump will go third party because that’s where I will vote.

[HiTech RedNeck]

He isn’t using his Christian character either way, so of course he is going to get cat calls.