Recapping the liberal media's infatuation and uneasiness with Ted Cruz's "New York values" comment, Fox News Sunday panelist and Washington Post columnist George Will highlighted how Cruz's slogan has had nothing to do with 9/11 but instead how the city's liberal base has recently honored Soviet spies and elected a mayor who used to work for the Sandinistas.
Will first explained how Cruz's appearances in various New York City boroughs have made for "an uneasy fit," but are necessary as he tries to pick off congressional districts from Trump due to the primary's proportional allotment of delegates.
Once he finished expounding on that strategy, Will turned to the New York values debate and first noted that Cruz has not been stating how "New York firemen are any less brave than New Mexico firemen" or that he's demeaning the memory of those lost on 9/11.
Rather, the Texas senator has repeatedly meant to remind voters of the overwhelmingly Democratic city's far-left beliefs and despite the influence the city has on the country in so many facets, they don't represent the rest of America politically:
He was saying I'm campaigning in a city which last September, the city council voted to honor Ethel Rosenberg, the traitor who, with her husband Julius, sold out the United States secret to Stalin. There is a city in which the mayor spent part of his youth working for the Sandinistas. There are New York political values and they're not shared by the rest of country.
Host Chris Wallace followed up with Washington Post correspondent Anne Gearan on this and wondered if Will had a point. Surprisingly, Gearan corroborated much of what Cruz's argument has been:
Well, yes to a large degree. I mean, I think he was talking about New York City and the concentration of liberal politicians and liberal sentiment there. Upstate New York is a very different place. I'm from Rochester. It's a pretty Republican town as is much of upstate...and I think that plays well in the media outside of New York, maybe not as well in upstate New York as attacks on New York City do, But attacks on New York City play great in upstate.
The relevant portion of the transcript from April 10's Fox News Sunday can be found below.'
Fox News Sunday
April 10, 2016
9:39 a.m. Eastern
GEORGE WILL: George, how big a problem do you think talking about New York values in a disdainful way --- how much of a problem is that for Cruz when he is campaigning in New York and this brush of the establishment now to embrace Ted Cruz is part of the top Stop Trump movement. How uneasy a fit is that?
GEORGE WILL: It's an uneasy fit. I don't think the New York values hurts him in New York because he's really not trying to win New York either now or in November. He's trying to pick up delegates. That's why he went to a Dominican Chinese restaurant, you have to love this country, Dominican Chinese restaurant at the most Democratic district in the country in the Bronx where Mitt Romney got three percent of the vote last time. Why did he go there? Because each -- of the 27 districts in New York --
WALLACE: Congressional districts.
WILL: Congressional districts gets three delegates. He can pick them up along the way and hold Mr. Trump below 75 delegates perhaps and have success. Now, about New York values. He was not saying New York firemen are any less brave than New Mexico firemen. That's not the point. 9/11 is not the point. He was saying I'm campaigning in a city which last September, the city council voted to honor Ethel Rosenberg, the traitor who, with her husband Julius, sold out the United States secret to Stalin. There is a city in which the mayor spent part of his youth working for the Sandinistas. There are New York political values and they're not shared by the rest of country.
WALLACE: Do you buy that, Anne, that when he was talking about New York values he was talking about Mayor de Blasio when he was talking in the heartland of Iowa?
ANNE GEARAN: Well, yes to a large degree. I mean, I think he was talking about New York City and the concentration of liberal politicians and liberal sentiment there. Upstate New York is a very different place. I'm from Rochester. It's a pretty Republican town as is much of upstate ---
WALLACE: But he also talked about money the media.
GEARAN: --- yes and I think that plays well in the media outside of New York, maybe not as well in upstate New York as attacks on New York City do, But attacks on New York City play great in upstate.
