Cruz Blasts Media Coverage On Bombs: ‘Any Narrative That Can Be Turned Against President Trump, They Use’

Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday ripped the mainstream media’s coverage of the bombs sent to prominent liberals and Democrats, saying they are happy to use “any narrative” that can be turned against the president.

“It’s the media’s doing what the media does, which is any narrative that they can twist against Trump, they will do so,” Cruz said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show.

“This is terrorism. I mean, this is terrorism, and whoever the terrorist is needs to be caught, needs to be prosecuted, he needs to be put in jail for a long, long time. And I’m confident that’ll happen.”

Cruz said “violence is always wrong wherever it occurs on the political spectrum.”

“We saw tragically a year ago a crazed gunman coming to Washington, D.C., with the objective of shooting Republican congressmen and ultimately going to the Congressional baseball practice and shooting and nearly killing [Republican Rep.] Steve Scalise. And this should not be part of our political discourse. Disagreement is fine. It’s even healthy to disagree on policy issues. But violence has no place in it, and we need to be able to disagree with each other with civility and with respect.”

Prominent liberals in the MSM blamed Trump and Republicans for the bombing attempts, with Paul Waldman of The Washington Post writing: “Given what Trump has done and said, this was absolutely predictable. In fact, it’s a wonder that it took this long. It’s not just that Trump advocates violence against his political opponents — though he does. It’s that everything about his rhetoric pushes his supporters in that direction, even if the overwhelming majority will never get quite to the point where they’ll actually commit this kind of act of terrorism.”

Joe Scarborough, host of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, wrote on Twitter: “The unrelenting hatred churned up by Donald Trump for the two years following 2016 is dangerous. A Washington Post columnist is dead and progressive icons are targets of bombs.”

Jennifer Rubin, a “conservative” blogger at The Post, wrote: “We are not saying Trump causes bomb threats; we are saying his rhetoric is unlike any of his predecessors, does damage to our democracy and can motivate fringe characters to behave violently. He systematically destroys comity, decency and rationality.”

CNN President Jeff Zucker also blamed Trump — and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders — for the series of bomb threats that surfaced on Wednesday.

“There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,” Mr. Zucker said in a statement. “The president, and especially the White House Press Secretary, should understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that,” he said.

Sanders blasted Zucker for the claim.

“I think it is absolutely disgraceful that one of the first public statements we heard from CNN yesterday was to put the blame and the responsibility of this despicable act on the president and on me personally,” Sanders said on Fox News.

“I find that disgraceful that that was one of the first statements is that they made this and tried to put the blame on the president,” she said.

Trump on Thursday also put the blame on the media.

“A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!” he wrote on Twitter.