Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R., TX) took the media to task on Wednesday for asking Republicans tougher questions than they ask Democrats.
Cruz said that the questions asked by CNBC's moderators on Wednesday demonstrated why Americans do not trust the media. He ticked through a list of questions asked by the moderators of the CNBC debate.
"Let me say something at the outset: the questions asked in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media," Cruz said. "This is not a cage match. And you look at the questions: Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don't you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues people care about?"
Cruz said that Democratic politicians are rarely asked tough and tricky questions, in part because most journalists are sympathetic to the Democratic Party.
"Nobody believes that the moderators have any intention of voting in a Republican primary," Cruz said.
Republicans and conservatives have long criticized the media for treating them unfairly, citing surveys that show that journalists are typically liberal. According to a 2014 study by the University of Indiana, journalists who identify as Democrats outnumber journalists who identify as Republicans by four to one.
The Republican Party has tried to counter what it saw as unfair moderating in the 2012 presidential debates by requiring that debates in the 2016 primary include conservative moderators.
Wednesday's debate was moderated by CNBC anchor John Harwood, who has been accused of attacking Republicans and covering for Democrats in the past.
Full transcript:
CARL QUINTANILLA: Congressional Democrats and Republicans are about to strike a compromise that would raise the debt limit, during the fear that a Washington crisis is on the way. Does your opposition to it show you're not the kind of problem solver that American voters want?
TED CRUZ:Let me say something at the outset: the questions asked in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media. This is not a cage match. And you look at the questions: Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don't you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues people care about?
QUINTANILLA: Do we get credit—
CRUZ: —And Carl, I'm not finished yet. The contrast with the Democratic debate, where every thought and question from the media was, which of you is more handsome and wise?
QUINTANILLA: Let me say, I asked you about the debt ceiling. You have 30 seconds left to answer should you choose to do so.
TED CRUZ: Let me be clear. The men and women on this stage have more ideas, more experience, more common sense, than every participant in the Democratic debate. That debate reflected a debate between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Nobody believes that the moderators have any intention of voting in a Republican primary. The questions being asked shouldn't be trying to get people to tear into each other, it should be what are your substantive ideas.