Ted Cruz Goes After ‘MOST Partisan/Unfair’ Manu Raju: ‘When You’re Obnoxious, We Answer Other Reporters’

Colby HallJan 24th, 2020, 6:41 am
 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Senator Ted Cruz took a page from President Donald Trump’s “the best defense is a good offense” playbook in a Friday tweet that took a shot at CNN Capitol Hill reporter Manu Raju, and also, quite curiously, played the victim card against one of the more respected reporters inside the beltway.

While covering the ongoing impeachment trial of President Trump, Raju caught up with Senator Cruz to ask if he defended Trump’s controversial conduct with Ukraine, which the Texas Senator promptly blew off in lieu of taking a question from New York Times reporter Nicholas Fandos.

Cruz tweeted about the rather innocuous incident:

Ignoring the basic rule of “never punching down,” Cruz went after Raju in a remarkably pointed way by wading back into last week’s dust-up between the CNN reporter and Senator Martha McSally.

For those with a very short memory, the unelected Arizona Senator notoriously went after Raju on Capitol Hill last Thursday for asking if she will vote to allow witnesses to testify and for new evidence to be accounted for in the Senate’s impeachment proceedings. McSally replied, “You’re a liberal hack. I’m not talking to you,” to which Raju replied, “You’re not going to comment?” “You’re a liberal hack,” McSally repeated.

Cruz went full mean girl in replying to Raju’s tweet, first mentioning the “pissing fight” with McSally before acting like a petulant and two-faced middle schooler saying “EVERY GOP Senator agreed you were the MOST partisan/unfair Cap Hill reporter,” before calling Raju “obnoxious.” Cruz tweeted:

White House reporter Andrew Feinberg defended Raju and called Cruz’s description “absurd” before explaining an alternative retelling of the Raju/McSally dust-up that plainly speaks for itself.

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Colby Hall - Founding Editor

Colby Hall is the Founding Editor of Mediaite.com. He is also a Peabody Award-winning television producer of non-fiction narrative programming as well as a terrific dancer and preparer of grilled meats.