Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has not shied away from calling out Hamas for attacking Israel, as well as those he says are complicit. That includes the mainstream media, as he and co-host Ben Ferguson discussed during Monday's episode of "The Verdict."
As Ferguson pointed out in asking Cruz how shocked he was, "the media is falling over themselves, to defend Hamas, to defend the Palestinians, and to act like somehow they're not a terrorist organization."
Cruz is "not shocked at all" and pointed out that "Hamas has a battle plan," with an "essential" part of it being "a propaganda plan," including using civilians as human shields. "Why do they want Palestinian civilians killed? Because they know the global media will use those civilian casualties to attack, to undermine, to demonize, to vilify Israel," Cruz explained.
That's where the media comes in.
"The corporate media is an integral part of Hamas is war plan. And right now today, CNN is Hamas’ Air Force. MSNBC is Hamas’ Air Force. ABC is Hamas’ Air Force," Cruz declared.
The first of many examples came from MSNBC's Ali Velshi on the day that Hamas attacked Israel.
"We’ve had a lot of statements from Americans, mostly Republicans this morning, but some Democrats, it’s a bit boilerplate. Israel is our greatest ally. The only democracy in the Middle East. Our strongest ally, we must stand with Israel. There’s no nuance or recognition of anything that's been going on. Let alone—the only thing Americans are worried about these days are these so-called judicial reforms going on in Israel. Which have led to hundreds of thousands of people protesting on the streets, but lots of Palestinians have said to me, boy they wish those same Israelis who were out there protesting the so-called judicial reforms would be protesting Israel’s inhumane treatment of the Palestinians who live under Israeli occupation," Velshi claimed.
Cruz called such remarks "striking" when it comes to Velshi's focus of what Americans are supposedly concerned with. He also pointed out "there is no nuance to beheading babies. If you behead babies, you're an evil monster who deserves to die. And by the way, there is no nuance to raping women and raping little girls, that is evil," he stressed.
Ferguson also addressed The Los Angeles Times' Adam Elmahrek, who has disputed that Hamas has committed such atrocities. Ferguson honed in on one of Elmahrek's many posts.
Elmahrek's narrative continued even after Israel's official X account released images of murdered babies, as Townhall covered.
The only source for “Hamas beheaded babies” appears to be the Israeli military, which is widely known to spread lies and disinformation
— Adam Elmahrek (@adamelmahrek) October 10, 2023
Journalists, this is the fog of war. You’ll be seeing all sorts of claims. Don’t amplify unverified, sensational info https://t.co/7tiCNAj3j9
Although Cruz acknowledged he doesn't know who Elmahrek is, he was "quite confident" in saying Elmahrek "hates Israel," especially since Elmahrek in no way backed up his claims about the Israeli military. "But when you are a hardcore leftist, when you hate Israel, and you need to understand, today's far left is motivated by a seething hatred for Israel and a seething antisemitism," Cruz explained.
There was another example with MSNBC, as Ayman Mohyeldin came on Velshi's program to blame Israel.
"It would be very naive to just simply say, every Palestinian agrees with what Hamas is doing. But Hamas is saying, well, if nobody is able to defend what is happening for Palestinians in the West Bank or in East Jerusalem with the home demolitions, the arrests, the children being killed the desecration of holy sites, if they're unable to do that, then we only have the ability to do it with military might and crude weapons and military," Mohyeldin claimed.
Ferguson was quick to remind that "this is not military force, this is terrorism," stressing "it is qualitatively different."
This is especially as, Cruz offered when it comes to such atrocities, Hamas is not "targeting military targets and engaging in war," but rather "war crimes."
Hamas is aware of the "extreme" bias from networks like MSNBC, Cruz explained.
"And the important thing to understand Hamas knows that, they knew that before they started they had an allies, they knew the useful idiots would defend them" and "would say Israel is killing children," he said. The senator also provided the important context of how Israel doesn't target children, unlike Hamas, but rather children will die as unintended consequences as a result of the war. Further, because Hamas deliberately uses children as shields, more children will die than from other wars.
"These useful idiots" and "imbeciles" in the media, however, will blame Israel.
Further into the discussion, Cruz insisted "the press needs to understand and acknowledge this and not simply repeat Hamas' talking points." Later still he pointed out that "Hamas' battle plan counts on the corporate media... to amplify their claims."
Another example came from ABC News' "The View," where co-host Sunny Hostin compared Hamas to the Proud Boys and brought up international law.
"I look at this from a legal perspective," Hostin claimed. "And I think that we all know that Hamas has been designated a terror organization just like many other terror organizations have had this designation, like the Proud Boys here in the United States. But I do think that what we need to remember is that there is an international human rights body of law. And when you look at that law, part of it is retaliation against innocent civilians collectively, which is also terror, and is also a war crime. And again, those are not my words. Those are the words of the law," she continued. Such remarks led Cruz to later offer "every word of every syllable of that is wrong."
Ferguson put Hostin on full blast, wondering how Jewish employees at ABC News didn't "walk out on the job" given Hostin's not only "so antisemitic," but that she made her remarks "with that amount of power." He also expressed disbelief that someone greenlit such commentary.
In addition to calling the Proud Boys "a bunch of clowns" who are "racist" and "idiots," Cruz raised a key distinction. "Hamas is a major global terrorist organization that has murdered vast number of people that has tortured vast number of people, that is beheading infants." As he stressed "I'm not defending the Proud Boys," Cruz insisted "there is no moral equivalency."
Hostin, Cruz pointed out, was "trying to diminish" the situation. He also poked fun at Hostin making her point as part of a legal matter. "I've got to say, if that demonstrates your legal talent, I don't know what moron would hire her for a lawyer," he quipped.
Not only is Israel not committing war crimes, as they are not targeting civilian populations, they urge civilians to get out of the way, though Hamas insists they stay in harms way.
There were more problematic remarks from Hostin, as she continued to go after Israel for war crimes, prompting Cruz to once more bring up a point about "the hard left," which is that "they hate Israel," as he also mentioned Iran and the Squad. "The radical left hates Israel with a passion." This leads to some rather selective reporting about what Hamas is doing not just to Israelis, but to civilians in Gaza. "Hamas wants Palestinians to die," Cruz stressed.
As Hamas succeeds in causing the death of civilians, which Israel will get blamed for, Cruz explained "then all of these useful idiots will come and say 'we told you not to do a war crime, see Israel, see you just did this,'" which the senator said makes ABC "complicit" and is something he said "is no different than if you put a Hamas propagandist on TV."
CNN did do that, with Cruz saying network engaged in "literally putting a paid liar for Hamas on CNN," in this case Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti, during his appearance on "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
"I think Hamas mainly attacked military establishments, military installations, and most of the people there, they have arrested and taken as war prisoners are military people. I do not accept attacking any civilian. I do not accept that Israelis attack our civilians," Barghouti claimed. "But look at what Israeli planes are doing now in Gaza. They are bombarding houses. They are bringing down to earth and you’ve shown that on your screen, whole apartments, whole buildings, high-rise buildings are brought down to the ground and we already are reporting--receiving reports about families who are killed."
Particularly absurd is that Barghouti claimed the hostages were military, even though Hamas themselves put out footage, including of a young woman, clearly not a member of the military, who had been beaten and raped.
"Rape is not a military action, and Hamas is bragging about it," Cruz reminded. "And what is that imbecile doing? He's happily lying. He's saying this is a military action carried out against military targets that were only capturing military soldiers. He said I don't support attacking civilians, but he says it is Israel that's attacking civilians," Cruz added.
As Ferguson pointed out, though, CNN is part of a trend, so they can claim "we're telling both sides." As Ferguson reminded, though, "there isn't both sides when it comes to this fight," especially since Israel didn't attack, but rather was attacked and responded, which includes a commitment to eradicate Hamas.
When it comes to what Hamas' "terror strategy," Cruz said they know "the American media is going to say that they're going to repeat their talking points," which is going to be used "to undermine Israel," especially since Hamas "is counting on... the corporate media globally."
Another clip once again had to do with CNN. "Of course we have heard from regional voices, we have heard from international rights groups and human rights organizations who have said that, while this attack was deplorable, and deeply unprecedented, it did not happen in a vacuum," reporter Nada Bashir claimed. "This has come after decades of what Hamas and other Palestinians view to be occupation of Palestinian territory. It comes after decades of violation of Palestinian rights and decades of which is where the rights groups and UN Human rights experts have characterized as policies and practices which amount to apartheid."
"They might as just put up CNN antisemitic reporter with her name," Ferguson responded, with Cruz reminding that she is not an opinion columnist, but is supposed to be a reporter, paid for her remarks made without evidence.
When it comes to how Hamas has "the best air cover imaginable in the global media," Cruz pointed to another clip from MSNBC.
"The fact is, there’s an entire people who are living under the boot of the Israeli Army. They don’t want to do that anymore. And they, you know, they’ve tried everything, even this statement from Hamas. And this is not about Hamas. And I really want to caution your viewers not to be dragged into the good guy vs. bad guy equation. We have to look at the bigger picture," Nour Odeh claimed, leading Ferguson to refer to her as antisemitic.
Cruz responded by asking MSNBC "to put out a formal statement, explaining how someone who's raping a little girl is not a bad guy," arguing that by having Odeh on, "that's apparently their position."
While Cruz stressed such narratives are "a lie," he pointed to how "it's convenient propaganda," speaking to "the strategy" to "push the lie."
Cruz and Ferguson warned that we will see "much more" of this media bias, that "this is just the beginning," and it is likely going to get worse, especially as Hamas succeeds in getting children killed.
Just earlier on Tuesday, as Spencer covered, Hamas claimed that Israel targeted a hospital, when in reality it looks to have been a misfired terrorist rocket. This led to, as subsequent coverage from Katie pointed out, "fake news" from the media.
CNN is Hamas’s Air Force. As is MSNBC and ABC. Here’s the evidence.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 16, 2023
Don’t miss @benfergusonshow and I break down all this and more on this morning’s new episode of Verdict. Available wherever you get your podcasts. https://t.co/L0l25wVfkN pic.twitter.com/gd9BV7P2Ae
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