Presidential candidate Ted Cruz criticized Fox News’ Megyn Kelly for asking a question about deporting illegal immigrants that “every mainstream media liberal journalist wants to ask.”
“If you have a husband and wife who are illegal immigrants, and they have two children here who are American citizens — would you deport all of them? Would you deport the American citizen children?” Kelly asked.
“Megyn, I get that that’s the question you want to ask,” Cruz said after repeatedly listing the steps Congress should take for addressing the issue. “That’s also the question every mainstream media liberal journalist wants to ask. They focus exclusively on 12 million people.”
Kelly then took issue with Cruz’s response, insisting that her question was fair.
“Is it an unfair question?” she asked the Texas lawmaker.
“It is a distraction from how we actually solve the problem,” Cruz responded. “You know, it’s also the question that [President] Barack Obama wants to focus on.”
“But why is it so hard? Why don’t you just say yes or no?” Kelly countered.
Cruz argued that the U.S. must secure its borders and overturn Obama’s executive order on immigration before addressing the issue of birthright citizenship and related deportations.
Cruz’s remarks come as Kelly is also feuding with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination next year.
Trump has repeatedly challenged Kelly’s credibility as a journalist following her questioning of him during the first GOP presidential debate earlier this month.
Cruz and Trump have repeatedly struck a friendly tone toward one another while campaigning for next year’s election.
Cruz has vowed he is avoiding Republican-on-Republican attacks because it is counterproductive to the conservative cause.
Kelly asked a question that many people want an answer to; i.e., specific policy proposals regarding how deportation is going to work. Sure it’s a hard question, but Cruz was obviously unprepared to answer it. So instead of making a fumbling and mumbling response, he attacked the messenger. No doubt good politics but it hardly recommends him as a candidate who can stand the gaff of a long campaign.
The idea that it’s a “liberal journalist” question to wonder how deportation is going to work in the real world is laughable. Are reporters not allowed to ask for any specifics regarding policy? Are they supposed to be fawning sycophants like news personalities at MSNBC and CNN?
Kelly is not going to put on a short skirt and wave pom-poms for the GOP base. She is doing her job, and judging by her ratings, she is doing it well enough for millions of people to tune in every night. She asked a perfectly fair question of someone who wants to be elected to the highest office in the land. Perhaps it’s time for Cruz and Trump to abandon the cheap applause lines attacking journalists and speak intelligently to the issues.
What a change that would be.
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