Ted Cruz | Messaging Matters

Republican political hopefuls must gamble for or against Trump

Written on January 11, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Republican Messaging

The reality that is splitting Republicans apart

After the tumultuous events of last week, including Donald Trump‘s Mafia phone call to Georgia‘s Secretary of State to try to overturn their 2020 presidential election results, the shocking Democratic U.S. Senate runoff election sweeps in Georgia, the certification in the Congress of the Electoral College victory by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and the deadly right wing terrorist invasion of the U.S. Capitol that temporarily halted such certification, many Republican politicians quickly had to make a choice: is their future political career or legacy safer siding with or against Trump? In other words, do these Republicans follow Donald Trump down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, rejecting and trying to overturn state-certified elections, and even inciting terrorism and sedition against the United States? Or do Republican politicians retain a basic belief in reality, government institutions, the 2020 election results, and democracy itself? Here’s where some of these Republicans have lined up in recent days:

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Tags: 2020 Elections, 2022 elections, 2024 elections, Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump, Georgia, Josh Hawley, Kevin McCarthy, Lisa Murkowski, Mike Pence, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Ted Cruz, U.S. Capitol

Republicans run distraction playbook on Trump Georgia phone call

Written on January 5, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Donald Trump busted acting like a Mob boss on the phone

One of the go-to tactics in the Republican playbook is distraction. In particular, when Republicans are caught doing something wrong, they try to distract the media and the public by focusing not on the substance of their wrongdoing, but on who leaked the story of the wrongdoing. We saw that, for example, in 1997, when Republican U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich was caught on an intercepted cell phone call coordinating his response to ethics charges with Republican House leaders Richard Armey, John Boehner and others, in violation of Gingrich’s ethics case settlement. The Republican distraction by focusing on the interception of the call rather than improper call itself, was a success in that instance.

On Sunday, something similar happened with Donald Trump. The Washington Post released the recording of a recent telephone call from Trump to Georgia‘s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, on which Trump begs, cajoles and even threatens Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to change the certified result of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

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Tags: 2020 Elections, Brad Raffensperger, Christopher Wray, Democrats, Donald Trump, FBI, Georgia, impeachment, Jason Miller, Newt Gingrich, Republicans, Ted Cruz, Ted Lieu, U.S. House, Ukraine, Washington Post, Watergate

Democratic Senator takes down Trump and Ted Cruz over shutdown and wall

Written on January 25, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging

Yesterday, Democratic U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado absolutely slammed Donald Trump and Republican U.S. Senator Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz over the Trump Shutdown and Trump’s border wall idea. As the above video shows, Bennet was responding to Cruz’ statement implying that Democrats could end the shutdown simply by voting the Republicans’ way (meaning, giving into Trump’s hostage taking by approving border wall funding as a condition for reopening the government). Bennet vehemently attacked Cruz and Trump on the following:

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Tags: border security, border wall, Donald Trump, fMexico, government shutdown, immigration, Karl Rove, Michael Bennet, Senate, Ted Cruz, Trump Shutdown

What’s in a politician’s nickname?

Written on March 8, 2018 by Messaging Matters in Media Watch, Republican Messaging

U.S. Senator Raphael Edward “Ted” Cruz

There’s some big name news this week on the Republican side, involving both Donald Trump (and his alleged side woman, porn star Stormy Daniels), as well as Senator Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz. The news brings to mind some of the nicknames politicians use, and why.

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Tags: Beto O'Rourke, CNN, David Dennison, Donald Trump, Peggy Peterson, Rafael Edward Cruz, Richard Nixon, Stephanie Clifford, Stormy Daniels, Ted Cruz

Avoiding Donald Trump’s pigsty

Written on September 12, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Message to Clinton voters about Donald Trump

Playwright George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying:

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

That’s good advice for Hillary Clinton. When she climbs into the mud with Donald Trump and his supporters, she gets dirty, and they seem to like it. For example, at a New York City fundraiser on Friday, Clinton said:

You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it.

There’s plenty of evidence that a portion of Trump’s supporters really are deplorable. However, the problem with these remarks (which Clinton has since walked back a bit), isn’t their truth, it’s that Clinton shouldn’t be the one making them.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, 2016 Republican primaries, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz

U.S. political media on life support after NBC Matt Lauer forum

Written on September 9, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Media Watch

NBC’s Matt Lauer with former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders

Wednesday night’s NBC News “Commander-in-Chief Forum” has been roundly criticized. In particular, moderator Matt Lauer is taking the heat for his biased, amateurish performance. However, the NBC forum is just one of many examples of the U.S. Beltway media tipping the scales against Hillary Clinton and for Donald Trump in this election, and failing to do their job. One Twitter user even started the hashtag “#LaueringTheBar” to describe this trend. With the first presidential debate just days away, time is quickly running out to cure the problem.

Welcome to the Trump Republican National Convention train wreck

Written on July 21, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Fox "News" Watch, Media Watch, Messaging Maxims, Republican Messaging

Ill-fated Trump/Pence “TP” logo.

On Monday, several of Donald Trump‘s campaign staffers were involved in a minor car accident in New York City. That was nothing compared to the train wreck that is the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, Ohio, and the events of the previous days. Here are some of the many things that have gone wrong for the Trump campaign and the Republican Party in just the past week:

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Tags: 2016 Elections, Donald Trump, John Kasich, Melania Trump, Meredith McIver, Michelle Obama, Mike Pence, NATO, Republican National Convention, Republican Party, RNC, Saddam Hussein, Scott Baio, Ted Cruz, The Art of the Deal, Tony Schwartz

In the Iowa Caucus, a smiley face and a gold star for everyone

Written on February 2, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Donald Trump after giving “concession” speech at Iowa Caucus

Last night’s Iowa Presidential Caucus gave all the front-runners in the Democratic and Republican Parties something to smile about. At least, the Caucus results gave each of the following campaigns something to spin positively about:

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Tags: 2016 election, Bernie Sanders, Democratic Party, Democratic primary, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Iowa Caucus, Marco Rubio, New Hampshire, Republican Party, Republican primary, Ted Cruz

Huffington Post’s boneheaded decision on Donald Trump

Written on July 21, 2015 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Donald Trump with his version of the White House

The Huffington Post published a notice last Friday stating that, from now on, it will cover Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign under its Entertainment section rather than under Politics or News. According to the notice from Huffington Post Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim and its Editorial Director Danny Shea:

Our reason is simple: Trump’s campaign is a sideshow. We won’t take the bait. If you are interested in what The Donald has to say, you’ll find it next to our stories on the Kardashians and The Bachelorette.

Not surprisingly, Trump’s campaign fired back at the Huffington Post, saying:

The only clown show in this scenario is the Huffington Post pretending to be a legitimate news source. Mr. Trump is not focused on being covered by a glorified blog. He is focused on Making America Great Again.

In fact, the Huffington Post’s decision to dump Trump from its political coverage is completely arbitrary, and is a huge mistake.

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Tags: 2016 election, CNN, Donald Trump, Huffington Post, Kardashian, media, Republican Party, Ted Cruz

Republican presidential primary problems

Written on May 5, 2015 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Messaging Maxims, Republican Messaging

Ted Cruz, clowniest passenger in the GOP Clown Car?

In the 2012 Presidential primaries, the Republican Clown Car had a crackup. The GOP candidates fell all over each other to kowtow to the narrow, extreme Republican primary base (comprised, for example, in Iowa, of 60 percent Evangelical Christians). Michele Bachmann said that the HPV vaccine causes “mental retardation,” and Herman Cain mocked the very idea of having foreign policy knowledge. Then came Willard Mitt Romney‘s disastrous “Etch-A-Sketch” moment, in which Romney’s Communications Director dumbly asserted that, after lurching to the right in the primaries, Romney could simply “hit a reset button” for the general election, “like an Etch-A-Sketch,” as if no one would hold Romney accountable for the positions he was taking and as if the giant Memory Machine known as the Internet didn’t exist. Romney’s Etch-A-Sketch moment perfectly summed up the Republican Party’s 2012 problem. Romney’s Republican rivals such as Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum pounced on the Etch-A-Sketch statement as proof that Romney could not be trusted by the GOPs conservative base. Romney ended up being trusted by no part of the electorate. Fast forward to the present day, and it appears that the GOP is poised to repeat these same mistakes of 2012.

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Tags: 2012 election, 2016 election, Barack Obama, climate change, Etch-A-Sketch, gay marriage, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Republican Party, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, Texas

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