Ted Cruz Campaign Blindsided by Fox’s Gotcha Montage During Debate

Sen. Ted Cruz’s communications director, Rick Tyler, joined Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon Friday on Breitbart News Daily.

They recapped last night’s national debate, discussing how Fox News tried to paint Cruz as pro-amnesty, and also highlighted that Cruz is challenging Trump to a one-on-one final debate Saturday night in Iowa, before Monday’s caucuses.

Fox News surprised many viewers—and angered many conservatives—by running a campaign-style video going after Cruz on immigration, suggesting that in 2013 both Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio equally supported amnesty for illegal aliens.

The video quoted Cruz as saying that he was looking for middle ground to help the Senate’s Gang of Eight legislation to pass, as Cruz was attempting to insert amendments that would modify the bill. The original bill would have enabled at least 11 million illegal aliens to remain in the United States and pursue American citizenship. Rubio was one of the eight senators who crafted the legislation.

According to Tyler, Fox News took advantage of the fact that most voters are not familiar with how legislative battles work. Tyler pointed out that everyone in Washington, DC, at the time knew that Cruz was trying to insert “poison pill” amendments into the Gang of Eight legislation to kill the amnesty bill, such as inserting an amendment that would deny citizenship to the children of illegal aliens.

In fact, Cruz was working in concert with Sen. Jeff Sessions, the foremost opponent of amnesty in the Senate. The Texas senator’s opposition to amnesty was so transparent that many on the Left accused Cruz—who is Hispanic—of being anti-Hispanic.

But Tyler’s primary focus in the interview was to broadcast Cruz’s challenging Trump to a debate tomorrow, to settle which candidate is truly the anti-establishment conservative candidate. The Cruz campaign has even launched a website daring the billionaire businessman to show the courage to confront Cruz, www.DuckingDonald.com.

“Everybody wants this match,” Tyler told Bannon. “We’ve reserved the venue for this Saturday in Iowa.”

Tyler also touted the huge team of volunteers supporting the senator in Iowa, a team knocking on over 2,000 doors per day and making 20,000 phone calls per day.

Going into Monday, Cruz will have visited all 99 counties in the Hawkeye State. But Cruz has set aside time to throw down with The Donald at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday in Iowa, if Trump is willing to face the fire about which candidate—Cruz or Trump—is the Establishment’s worst nightmare.

Ken Klukowski is legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.

Hear the interview: