Ted Cruz exploded over Fox News's pro-Trump bias in 2016, new book claims
Ted Cruz, the hardline Texan who fought an ugly battle with Donald Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, was convinced the real-estate tycoon was actively assisted by Fox News and its late chief Roger Ailes, according to an explosive new book.
Author Tim Alberta, the chief political correspondent of Politico, writes that Cruz became convinced during the long and bitter primary that he was facing concerted opposition from Fox News, acting on Trump’s behalf.
When Ailes died in May 2017, four months after Trump’s inauguration, Cruz reportedly told friends: “I think it was Roger’s dying wish to elect Donald Trump president.”
Alberta’s bombshell book, American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump, reveals vivid details of the relationship between Trump and his favorite TV channel, as well as chronicling the dismay it invoked in senior Republicans. A copy of the book, which is published on 16 July, was obtained by the Guardian.
The book records how Cruz’s frustration with overtly pro-Trump coverage on a channel with enormous influence among Republican voters intensified, until eventually he exploded. The blast came on the night of the Wisconsin primary, 5 April 2016, which Cruz won by 48% to Trump’s 34%.
For Cruz, the victory was of unparalleled importance. It meant he still had a shot at securing the nomination.
After his victory speech, Cruz settled down to watching Fox News on his campaign bus. Alberta writes that he was initially pleased to see his photograph on the screen – an unusual bonus given blanket coverage of Trump by all main TV stations.
But then Sean Hannity, the unashamedly partisan and extreme rightwing Fox News host, interjected by pointing out Trump’s strong standing in upcoming primaries in New York, the northeast, Indiana and West Virginia. At that point, the author says, the Texan blew.
“What the fuck?” he shouted, leaping from his seat and startling staff who had never seen him quite as agitated.
The spotlight placed on Fox News’s apparently unrestrained backing for Trump comes at a tense moment between the president and the channel owned by Rupert Murdoch. For much of Trump’s presidency the two have been umbilically linked, policy decisions frequently made in what has been called a “feedback loop” with Fox News presenters.
But recently Trump has turned his Twitter megaphone against the TV channel. On Sunday evening he ranted that “Watching [Fox News] weekend anchors is worse than watching low ratings Fake News CNN… Fox News is changing fast, but they forgot the people who got them there!”
There is little likelihood of Trump divorcing the channel any time soon, given its enormous popularity among his supporters as he enters the 2020 race. But Alberta does give a glimpse of deep unhappiness among top Republicans about the unprecedented bond.
The author notes that Cruz and Ailes used to be close, regularly having breakfast in New York. Cruz was a frequent guest of the channel, given his rightwing positions and standing among evangelicals.
But as the 2016 primary cycle unfolded, Ailes cut himself off from Cruz, Alberta reports. By the New Year, just weeks before the Iowa caucuses, the TV executive was no longer taking the politician’s calls.
Cruz does not reserve his criticism of the media exclusively for Fox News. He tells the author the journalistic establishment acted as one in smothering Trump with coverage.
“I didn’t anticipate that Trump would receive over three billion dollars in free media,” the senator is quoted as saying. “There is no precedent for that in the history of the United States of America.”
In the end, in July 2016, Cruz agreed to address the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, at which Trump was nominated. But he refused to endorse the man who had dubbed him “Lyin’ Ted” and insulted his father and wife.
Alberta writes that Cruz told friends there was “no way in hell” he would subjugate himself to Trump in front of millions of viewers, remarking: “History isn’t kind to the man who holds Mussolini’s jacket.”