Subject: FW: TrackerBASE Report: PRES Ted Cruz on the Mike Gallagher Show 5/2/2016
From: "Sorbie, Sean" <[email-masked]>
To: Research_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 May 2016 14:03:18 -0700

________________________________
From: American Bridge Tracking
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2016 5:03:14 PM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
To: TrackerBase Tracking Reports
Cc: Doug Trumm
Subject: TrackerBASE Report: PRES Ted Cruz on the Mike Gallagher Show 5/2/2016

TO: Powerhouse

FROM:  Doug Trumm

Location:  Indiana campaign bus

Date: 05/02/16

RE:  Ted Cruz on Mike Gallagher Show

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Event Details:  Ted Cruz went after Donald Trump calling him a big government liberal and suggested he could win Indiana, 18 minutes.

Attendees/Audience:  listeners of Mike Gallagher show

Press:  http://www.mikeonline.com/presidential-candidate-senator-tedcruz-and-mike-preview-the-crucial-indiana-primary/

Summary of Event:

Cruz tried hard to paint Clinton and Trump with the same brush and point toward a media conspiracy to make both seem inevitable since they are “flip sides of the same coin.” Meanwhile Cruz painted himself as the principled conservative, the only one who’d uphold the constitution and offer real economy policy solutions that would raise wages. Cruz also said Boehner capitulated to Clinton and Obama on everything, perhaps imagining an alternate reality of how his tenure as speaker went down. Cruz framed his campaign as hope and change-y in contrast to the “anger and hatred” of Trump. While criticizing Mike Tyson, Cruz called rapists bullies. Bold stand. Finally, Cruz praised FDR and JFK for making Americans proud. It’s a topsy turvy world.

Key Points:

0:00

Lots of controversy. Yesterday morning on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd trying to extract an answer from Senator Cruz on whether or not he’d support Trump.

Meet the Press Audio Clip:

Todd:  If Donald Trump is the nominee I take it you can’t support him? he’s the nominee?

TC:  I believe that if Republican party nominates Donald Trump we will lose to Hillary Clinton.

Todd:  Are you going to support him?

TC:  Chuck what I’m going to do

Todd: Why can’t you answer the question if you can support Donald Trump or not?  Why won’t you answer question straightforward? Black and white.

TC:  Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. Let me finish this point I’m making. Donald won’t debate and the media won’t hold him accountable. I think the people of Indiana deserve a debate. I think we deserve a debate.

Todd:  Are you going to answer the question?

TC: I’m going to beat Donald Trump.

Todd:  Don’t you think it’s important to take a stand. You just said it’s the time of choosing. Say it whether you are for or against.

TC:  Chuck you’re welcome to lobby for Trump as much as possible. We are going to beat Trump. Because Trump’s winning the nomination loses the country.

Q:  I don’t blame Ted Cruz for saying that to Chuck Todd who sounded angry and animated. How a man like Ted Cruz keeps his cool is beyond me but he does. That line of questioning is over the top. From the campaign bus in Indiana, Ted Cruz.

TC:  Great to be with you.

Q:  I just played the audio where Chuck Todd was yelling at you. Media seem so personally invested in this that they seem to lose their composure.

TC:  Yep.

2:15

Q:  How do you keep your composure on the receiving end of a barrage like that?

TC:  Well to be honest it’s not tough at all, Mike. What we’re seeing is the mainstream media is desperate for conservatives to abandon our principles, to give up on the Constitution, to give up on individual liberty, to give up free market principles, and to instead support the campaign of Donald Trump. And you were saying the MSM has given him two billion in free advertising. And there attempting to fool conservatives, to con the Tea Party into supporting a big government liberal who believes in none of our principles. And the reason they’re doing it from the media’s perspective, every MSM company, the network executives are almost all liberal partisan Democrats. From their perspective it’s a win win.  One of two things happens. More than likely we elect Hillary Clinton because Donald Trump loses to her by double digits. Or if by some miracle Trump wins, they win anyway because he agrees with liberals on raising taxes, on supporting planned parenthood, on being neutral between Israel and Palestinians, agrees with liberals in support of banning guns across this country. The media is desperate to get us to abandon our principles that way they win either way. That’s why they know the next president will be a big government statist and our constitutional rights will be stripped away. And I’m not willing to give in to that. When Chuck Todd acts according to their leftwing ideology that’s not surprising because we understand they’re coming from.

4:15

Q:  When you see the media hype a story that you are way behind in Indiana despite a University of Purdue poll that shows you up with 45 percent. That poll released Friday gets little to no coverage because they’re invested in an outcome even if the facts don’t match.

TC:  That is exactly right. The media has engaged in this in a way we’ve never seen before. It’s high up the executive ladder. It’s profound to me. If you’re in Indiana who should be asking yourself why do the media want to get you to vote for Donald Trump?  And when Boehner called me the devil that got a lot of attention.  He put it more colorfully that that: Lucifer in the flesh.  In that same statement he praised Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. He said Trump was his golfing buddy. Boehner capitulated to Clinton and Obama on everything.  He wouldn’t stand up to Obama on anything. What does it tell you that Boehner wants you to vote for Trump. The one candidate that terrifies John Boehner and the Washington establishment is me. He’ll go along to get along. Both Hillary and Trump have been Washington insiders for forty years. That’s why the MSM and John Boehner are supporting Trump because he and Hillary are flip sides of the same coin.

7:00

Q:  I’m surprised by the sense of inevitably that pundits have. They are sure Trump will get to 1,237. You say he will not and it’ll be a contested convention. It’s been contended that you’re good at the ground game and poaching delegates from Donald Trump. Can you address that?

TC:  Let’s unpack things for a second. The vote tomorrow is so important in Indiana. Stand with us tomorrow. The media is talking about inevitability of Clinton and Trump. Trump is the presumptive nominee because he has 2/3 of the delegates he needs to win. It’s like a football team saying it has a touchdown because it’s on the 30 yard line. That’s not how it works last time I checked. Last week Donald won 5 states all surrounding his home state of New York. What the media failed to mention is in the three weeks before that, I won 5 states in a row: Utah, ND, Wisconsin, Colorado, WY. 3 million people voted in those states. Just in Wisconsin I won more republican votes that Trump did. The media couldn’t find to cover it. When liberal states like New York voted they did. Just because Manhattan went with Trump they think he won. California is going to be pivotal primary. We are going to go to a contested convention; I’m going to have a ton of delegates. Donald’s going to have a ton of delegates, and it’s going to be a battle. Who’s going to earn the majority of delegates elected by the people. Donald knows he cannot get a majority of the delegates at the convention. And if you can’t get a majority, you can’t unite the party, which means he’d be a terrible general election candidate. And Mike I believe we are going to win the support of the majority of delegates in Cleveland and win the nomination and then beat Clinton in November.

10:15

Q:  You got an important endorsement but it seemed lukewarm. Pence seemed to hedge his bets in his endorsement. Were you concerned by the way he praised Kasich and Trump?

TC:  I’m thrilled Pence is supporting me. I’m driving to meet him right now. He’s come out and campaigned with me and barnstormed this state. He is a strong principle conservative. He’s earned the support of Hoosiers criss crossing the states. He’s reduced regulations. We’ve seen over a hundred thousand of private sector jobs in Indiana thanks to commonsense conservative policies. Think about how much better the economy would be doing if it didn’t have the 800-pound weight of the federal government on people’s backs. So the fact that Mike Pence has made the decision to campaign with me it underscores the choice Indiana has.

Q:  If you could get him to throw a chair you’d be on fire.

TC:  Haha. but we should ask do we want to support a campaign that is based on yelling and screaming and cursing and insults. That is based on anger and hatred. Or do want to unify behind a positive, optimistic, forward-looking, campaigning conservative campaign with real economic policy solution to bring jobs back to America, and bring manufacturing jobs back to Indiana, and raise wages for working men and women.  Underscores a critical difference. While I was camping with Mike Pence, Trump was trumpeting his support of Mike Tyson. He’s a convicted rapist. He served 3 years in prison for rape. Trump was really proud to have his support. He called him a tough guy. I got to tell you, I don’t think rapists are tough guys. I think rapists are weaklings and cowards and bullies.  We all know bullies behave the way they do not because they are strong, but because they are weak and scared and insecure. The president impacts the culture of this country and our children. And I don’t believe we want to see the Republican nominee or the president to be someone who’d we be embarrassed if our kids came home and repeated the words of the president. We want a president like FDR like JFK like Ronald Reagan who makes America proud again and stands for the values of who we are.

14:10

Q:  Carly Fiorina fell down at a campaign stop. And the headline was Ted Cruz didn’t even care. If you look at the video you can see that you didn’t see it. Just to confirm you didn’t see Carly fall did you?

TC:  No. Of course not. Not only that. I saw the thing on Twitter today. I’m sure she’s alright because I’ve seen her since then. I sure didn’t see anything because I was shaking hands.

Q:  And the headlines were about how evil Cruz is. If you want to see a desperate narrative, there’s a great examples.

TC:  Cruz says Tyson is a rapist. That’s why we call him Lyin’ Ted. Trump is so divorced from reality. It’s not an opinion that he’s a rapist. Tyson was tried and convicted and served 3 years. The media acolytes let Trump getting away with trying to deceive people. I believe truth matters. It matters a great deal. This country is facing the edge of a cliff. The entire country is looking to Indiana. Need to look to Midwestern commonsense. The polls have been all over the place. The media is trying to convince you it’s hopeless. I can tell you right now Donald and I are neck and neck. Your vote makes a different. Come out tomorrow and vote and bring your friends and family. If you want your children to enjoy the freedom you’ve enjoyed join me, join Mike Pence, join Carly Florina and join million of constitutional conservatives who want a president who can make us proud again. This election is pivotal when I ask Hoosiers to rise to the occasion need to pull America back from the path we are on.

Q:  I appreciate you and the respect you have for our audience almost always making time for us.

TC:  Website. God bless.

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