By now it’s clear that billionaire likely GOP 2016 Presidential candidate Donald Trump will deal in not just name calling but outrageous sleaze to attack and discredit political foes. There are already predictions that he will go after likely Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton by attacking former Bill Clinton as a rapist. Now he’s accusing Ted Cruz’s father (who is so far out politically that you can almost hear the Twilight Zone music when he speaks) of helping President John F. Kennedy’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
And now the big political story has seemingly become…Ted Cruz’s angry and emotional reaction. Which is obscuring Trump’s comment and what it says about what our media now seemingly accepts and enables.
Why, for Trump it must be true, since the discredited allegation was published in The National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid that endorsed him in March, is published by a best bud of his, and who some have accused of now being an outlet for whatever allegations Team Trump want to get out there.
This last blast by Trump again show how far the quality of America’s discourse has fallen and how, in the end, there really are no consequences for Trump. And followers of his will nod their heads and agree with everything that comes out of his mouth (I hope there’s a video camera on him when he belches so we can then watch later in the evening Fox News’ Sean Hannity who now admits he’s all out for Trump and throws softballs to Republicans he likes belch on the same, exact pitch.)
So here’s the latest attack line Trumpistas will likely use against Cruz (presumably Clinton’s camp is anticipating material
Trump will use against her from old tabloid stories or allegations that appear in those books that sell big among conservative talk show fans that contain charges that are never proven but stated with certainty):
Donald Trump on Tuesday alleged that Ted Cruz’s father was with John F. Kennedy’s assassin shortly before he murdered the president, parroting a National Enquirer story claiming that Rafael Cruz was pictured with Lee Harvey Oswald handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets in New Orleans in 1963.
A Cruz campaign spokesperson told the Miami Herald, which pointed out numerous flaws in the Enquirer story, that it was “another garbage story in a tabloid full of garbage.”
“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump said Tuesday during a phone interview with Fox News. “What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don’t even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it.”
“I mean, what was he doing — what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting?” Trump continued. “It’s horrible.”
Trump’s tangent followed his rebuke of Rafael Cruz using the pulpit to court evangelicals for his son.
“I implore, I exhort every member of the body of Christ to vote according to the word of God and vote for the candidate that stands on the word of God and on the Constitution of the United States of America,” Rafael Cruz said in a video clip aired by Fox News. “And I am convinced that man is my son, Ted Cruz. The alternative could be the destruction of America.”
Asked to respond, Trump called it a disgrace. “I think it’s a disgrace that he’s allowed to do it. I think it’s a disgrace that he’s allowed to say it,” he said, before touting his support from Jerry Falwell Jr. and other evangelical leaders.
Cruz has responded with his toughest attack on Trump to date. And some now predict Cruz’s reaction (some on cable are calling it “emotional..unhinged..” will hurt Cruz:
Ted Cruz laid into Donald Trump with his most personal and toughest criticism since the GOP presidential campaign began, calling him a “pathological liar” on Tuesday who doesn’t understand the difference between the truth and lies.
Cruz prefaced his comments by saying that for the first time, he wanted to say exactly what he thought of Trump after the front-runner suggested Cruz’s father might have had something to do with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The Texas senator accused Trump of being both disingenuous and self-aggrandizing, saying Trump was a “narcissist” at a level “I don’t think this country has ever seen.”
“Donald Trump is such a narcissist that Barack Obama looks at him and says, ‘Dude, what’s your problem?’ ” Cruz said.“Whatever lie he’s telling, in that minute he believes it, Cruz added. “But the man is utterly amoral. Morality does not exist for him.”
He criticized Trump for tweeting an unflattering picture of his wife, Heidi Cruz, saying it is just one piece of evidence that Trump is scared of “strong women.”
“It’s why he went after Heidi directly, attacked her and smeared her,” Cruz said. “Heidi isn’t pretty enough for him. … Donald is a bully. … Bullies don’t come from strength, they come from weakness. … There’s a reason Donald builds giant buildings and puts his name on them everywhere he goes.”
“Donald has a real problem with women,” Cruz continued.
He then noted that Trump defended boxer Mike Tyson, who was convicted in Indiana on rape charges, and told Trump’s supporters they should not believe their favored candidate.
“Donald is cynically exploiting that anger, and Donald is lying to his supporters,” he said. He went on to insist Trump would betray his them by not doing what he promises, including his pledge to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Cruz’s all-out assault suggested his campaign might be nearing its breaking point.
Indeed, all campaigns have crumbled before Trump’s (ahem) unique style of politics, which has no shame, no boundaries, and cast aside all rules of decorum, decency and even the kind of language politicians for decades tried to avoid in public.
Neal Gabler, in a piece that must be read in full, notes how Trump is the emperor of social media and how social media and the whole media scene has shatters so many previous assumptions. And Andrew Sullivan correctly notes in a long analytical piece in New York magazine that America has never been riper for tyranny — and that Democrats who smugly assume he’ll be easy to beat or who rely on exiting formulas to predict the outcome could be in for a surprise.
As could many in the country.
Really, who would have ever thought that story in the National Enquirer alleging a candidate’s father was somehow tied in with the JFK assassination’s assassin would be seriously cited to discredit a candidate by another candidate?
That’s how far Trump — and we — have now sunk.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.