Cruz: Media Coverage of Me ‘Backhanded Compliment,’ I’ll Go Straight to People

Presidential candidate and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) reported that he considers media caricatures of him “a backhanded compliment” and that he would deal with media bias by going around the media “directly to the American people” on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.”

Cruz said that “the media historically paints two caricatures of Republicans. We’re either stupid or evil.” And “I guess I take it as a little bit of a backhanded compliment that the media has, to some extent, invented a third caricature for me, which is crazy…so they do everything they can to paint me as a wild-eyed lunatic with dynamite strapped around my chest.”

He continued, “I think the way you deal with the war room and the media chatter is the same way Reagan did it. The media’s always been a disaster. In 1980 they hated Reagan, they hate Republicans now, they hate conservatives even more. What Reagan did is he went over their head, and he went directly to the American people…that’s how we do it, we go over the heads of the reporters. And it’s easier now, we’ve got social media, we’ve got Facebook, we’ve got Twitter, we’ve got, God bless, Fox News, we’ve got the Internet, we’ve got the Drudge Report, we’ve got talk radio. We have all of the tools, the media gatekeepers are hopeless, but we can go directly to the people with the truth.”

Later, he stated that he could attract Independents because “the way you earn crossover votes is you stand for principle, you paint in bold colors.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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