Ted Cruz and Bill Maher finally agree on something.
The HBO host was tweeting his thoughts about CNBC’s GOP debate on Wednesday and couldn’t believe his ears when the Texas senator called out the moderators for asking questions that “illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media.”
“Oh my God, did I just hear Ted Cruz say something awesome that I agree with?” Maher wrote. “Yes. The media is even stupider than the pols.”
Pols is short for politicians, and Cruz completely ignored a question from a moderator to complain that the candidates weren’t getting a fair shake.
“The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media. This is not a cage match,” Cruz said. “You look at the questions: Donald Trump, are you comic book villain? Ben Carson can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues people care about.”
Kasich, however, had no issue with the moderators, and praised them for avoiding the “circus like we had in the past.”
“I thought they did a good job. I’m very pleased that I had time to be able to speak and talk about… my plans, my programs,” the Ohio governor told the Media Research Center after the event. “So I’m very appreciative of how they did their job tonight. It wasn’t a circus like we had in the past, it was well-done, well-controlled, a lot of good questions, and hopefully this is what we will see in the future.”
Cruz’s opponent appears to be in the minority, though.
The debate was highlighted by anti-media rants from Trump and Chris Christie, as well, while Republican National Committee chair Rence Priebus scolded CNBC for “gotcha” questions and “low blows.” Plenty of American citizens shared similar opinions on social media.
As TheWrap reported earlier on Thursday, the party’s renewed stand against the familiar liberal media conspiracy that Sarah Palin railed against while running with John McCain in 2008 may succeed in intimidating moderators in future debates.
“You’ll see reporters from CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, they may be a little more careful on how they phrase their questions, they may be a little more cautious at using a phrase that can be considered inflammatory,” veteran investigative reporter Mark Feldstein told TheWrap.