The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Ted Cruz Schools ‘The View’

Posted on | October 25, 2022 | 1 Comment

Your reminder that Ted Cruz was a national debating champ, and got degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called out The View on Monday for alleged hypocrisy, claiming the hosts don’t pressure Democratic election deniers to explain themselves while routinely doing so to Republicans. He cited 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as examples.
“There are a lot of folks in the media that try to, any time a Republican is in front of a TV camera, try to say, ‘The election was fair and square and legitimate.’ You know who y’all don’t do that to? You don’t do it to Hillary Clinton, who stood up and said, ‘Trump stole the election.’ Or Stacey Abrams, who said that the election was stolen. They sat here and said it was illegitimate,” Cruz unleashed on the hosts.
“And it was,” host Whoopi Goldberg told him.
“We may not like when Republicans win, but we don’t go, and we don’t storm,” she claimed.
A shocked Cruz asked, “Did I miss an entire year of Antifa riots where cities across this country were burning?”
“I don’t know what an Antifa riot is,” Goldberg responded.
“Your position is the Left doesn’t engage in violence? Really?” the senator asked.
An aggravated Goldberg then said, “You just accused us of doing something we didn’t do.”
“You were fine with [Clinton] saying it was illegitimate,” Cruz continued, pulling out notes of Clinton and Abrams’s statements on the program.

What was beautiful about this was that, while Cruz had gone to the trouble of bringing prepared notes, so he could quote verbatim, the hostesses were seemingly unprepared for his arguments.

“I don’t know what an Antifa riot is.”

The phrase to describe this is “willful ignorance.” If I said to you, for example, “I don’t know what a racist is,” you would either doubt my sincerity or be dismayed by my ignorance. The phenomenon Cruz termed “an entire year of Antifa riots” has been widely criticized and is the subject of a recent book, Fiery But Mostly Peaceful: The 2020 Riots and the Gaslighting of America by Julio Rojas. So, what are we to presume when Whoopi Goldberg says, “I don’t know what an Antifa riot is”?

Either she is lying — what, you didn’t notice when Antifa took over several city blocks in Seattle as an “autonomous zone”? — or else she has deliberately avoided any media that is critical of Antifa. Neither interpretation is flattering to Goldberg who, as the co-host of a daily show devoted to politics, ought to be reading widely as preparation for her job.

The phrase “Antifa riot” should not mystify her, any more than the phrase “structural racism” should not mystify any conservative in journalism. While I don’t own a copy of Ibram X. Kendi’s book How to Be an Anti-Racist or Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility, I’m familiar enough with their arguments that I would not be caught flatfooted if, in a televised debate, a liberal cited these authors and their arguments.

In point of fact, Antifa violence didn’t begin in 2020, but had been going on for years, as for example the 2017 Berkeley riot, which came just weeks after Antifa rioted in D.C. during Trump’s inauguration.

“I don’t know what an Antifa riot is” — well, if you don’t, ma’am, it would behoove you to find out. Or else be thought an idiot.




 

Category: Media Bias, Ted Cruz

Comments

One Response to “Ted Cruz Schools ‘The View’”

  1. Senator Cruz vs the nags on The View - The DaleyGator
    October 26th, 2022 @ 8:55 am

    […] The Other McCain notes that being a debating champion, and having facts on your side and believing in your principles can really prove to be a path to victory, even against 5 ideological opposites. […]