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.

[Lakeshark]

I think he just wants to win.

He's looking at the math and is desperate, so he sees the Romney idea as a path to winning.

I'm not saying it's right, I think it's one of many mistakes he has made, and this is just another one.

Just an opinion, because there is no way to prove what he's doing in any definitive way.

It does look bad.

[Smokin' Joe]

And he does not allow the to control him.

I weanna buy a noun.

Delusional? No way.

If Trump wants to slam people, why not let him?

Did Cruz have to 'take down' Jeb or Fiorina? Nope.

When blockers make an opening, you run with the ball.

[Jane Long]

Hallucinations and delusions?

[Smokin' Joe]

So Ted has officially become a Romney/GOPe surrogate. Nice...

Well, that's apparently what the media want you to believe. Whether you believe it or not is up to you and a little looking around.

[ground_fog]

I see censorship is hitting FreeRepublic now. can’t have the truth shown about Ted’s relationship with the Bushes. Drudge posts an article and it’s censored here. very sad day

[SubMareener]

Ted Cruz is going to be the first President of the North American Union! Get used to it!

[Jane Long]

Cruz Uses Same "Bombshell" smear as MItt: Cruz tells Media that Media is sitting on bombshells https://t.co/yQF35k9E7k #Dobbs— Lou Dobbs (@loudobbsnews) March 7, 2016

Lou gets it...CRuz = Romney Same smear tactics/same playbook

[Smokin' Joe]

I didn’t think it was broken, either.

[svcw]

Then you would be wrong

[gov_bean_ counter]

At least Cruz hasn’t compared anybody to a child molester.

[tatown]

I assumed it was okay to publish since it is linked to Drudge now!

[svcw]

That makes zero sense, as there is no North American Union, JEZZ trump people are odd

[DoughtyOne]

It seems to me that Ted needs to find a way to hit at policy and stop talking about Trump.

He probably does, but mentioning Trump just reminds people Ted is trailing him. Not a good idea...

[ground_fog]

It’s obvious nowe FreeRepublic is not free. Drudge puts an article up about the truth of Ted Cruz and it’s banned. I’ve seen dozens of articels about Trump reposted 100 x and no complaints.

Is this becoming CruzRepublic?

[sargon]

Well, [Ted Cruz as a Romney/GOPe surrogate] what the media want you to believe. Whether you believe it or not is up to you and a little looking around.

I did a little "looking around", and I saw Ted Cruz talking vaguely about unnamed "bombshells" that the media is sitting on, and also playing the race card most disingenuously.

That sort of behavior certainly makes Cruz look like a typical politician and a GOPe surrogate. I don't want to "believe it", but that's what my own eyes are telling me...

[Lakeshark]

Cut him some slack, he's getting bad advice and not overriding it, a mark of inexperience.

It's a sign that he's fighting, but it's that side that fights without a good end game.

Unfortunate. I just hope he doesn't wear out his reputation. For the most part (TPP, Corker, *cough*) he's been a pretty good senator, I don't want him to be looked at as a crooked pol who just says anything for political advantage. I'd like him to return to the senate with some clout.

[Jane Long]

can’t have the truth shown about Ted’s relationship with the Bushes.

---

Really? Well, I missed it, so I’ll have to see if I can still find it, on Drudge.

[Lakeshark]

I doubt that.

JR isn't into that, and he doesn't dislike Trump, rather thinks kind of highly about what Trump's doing. No reason for censoring, gotta be something else.

[RitaOK]

Thinking the same here. Ted has jumped the shark and in the stages of embarrassing himself.

Cruz, sounding critically desperate— every bit as near a crack up as the Romney/GOPE desperados.

TRUMP in a walk. Voters don’t like a pile-on.

[RitaOK]

ROTFLOLOL!!