Ted Cruz’s Fox News interview with Megyn Kelly was an epic disaster. Cruz tried to blame President Obama for the government shutdown, but he couldn’t even get that right.
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Cruz said, “I think it is pretty remarkable that the president feels the need to run out of his way to attack senators from the other party, and let me say I wish he hadn’t been following his own advice in the last month. I mean the president has kept such a low profile. He has been AWOL. He has not been part of the negotiations. He is refusing to even talk to Congress. He finally invited Congressional leaders to the White House. He sat down with them and said you’re here because I want to tell you that I am not going to negotiate. I mean that’s not reasonable.”
Later in the very same interview, Cruz claimed that the only thing that he would consider a victory would killing Obamacare, “I think a victory is if we prevent some of the enormous harms Obamacare is inflicting on millions of Americans.”
What makes Obama unreasonable in Ted Cruz’s mind is that he refuses to kill the ACA.
This interview was big fail for Sen. Cruz. His premise that the Republican path to victory in 2014 is killing Obamacare makes no sense, because Republicans are planning to run against the ACA next year. If Republicans kill the ACA this year, what will they run on? (The answer to this question is that Republicans need Obamacare to campaign against. It’s politics not reasonableness that has them pushing for a one year delay.)
Cruz claimed that the president has been AWOL, but he ignored the eight speeches, excluding weekly radio addresses, that Obama has given on the government shutdown over the past month.
Sen. Cruz’s whole plan for getting the Republican Party out of this mess is to have the House pass piecemeal funding bills this week, and then magically hold a conference next week where a deal is struck. Of course, the Democrats aren’t going to agree to any conferences, so that makes Cruz’s big plan complete horses**t.
Ted Cruz has no idea how he is going to get out of this. At times during the Fox News interview, Cruz looked like the student who was giving an oral book report on a book that he never read. Cruz’s big plan also apparently involves looking weak by whining that this is all Obama’s fault, but he can’t get that right. Cruz keeps alternating between blaming Obama and Harry Reid.
None of it is working. The American people are turning more and more against Cruz and his party each day, and after watching the Texas senator flail around during a softball interview on Fox News, it’s clear that the Republican Party is in big, big trouble.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
