ABC and NBC on Wednesday aggressively pushed back against Ted Cruz’s new terror policies. Good Morning America even highlighted Bernie Sanders as an example of why the Republican’s call to proactively monitor Muslim neighborhoods is a bad idea. GMA co-host George Stephanopoulos lectured, “Senator, your proposal to have police patrol Muslim neighborhoods is drawing a lot of fire from John Kasich. Bernie Sanders calls it unconstitutional.”
Stephanopoulos, who secretly donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation, added, “Hillary Clinton [called the idea] offensive and dangerous.” Over on NBC’s Today, Savannah Guthrie began the segment by reminding viewers that Cruz is “facing some criticism over comments he made in response to the terror attacks in Brussels.”
Cruz appeared on all three morning shows, Wednesday. On CBS This Morning, Gayle King scolded the Republican, telling him that such terror policies “play right into the hands of ISIS.”
She followed up:
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: you said yesterday in a Facebook post that "we need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized." How would you define a Muslim neighborhood? Is there a certain percentage of Muslims that have to live there? And do you have to have any particular suspicion that they're being radicalized, or is it the mere fact they're Muslims, in your mind, means police officers should be securing and patrolling those areas?
A transcript of the GMA segment is below:
3/23/16
8:058:05:26 to 8:07:19
TOM LLAMAS: We begin with big news in the race for president. Jeb Bush announcing he will endorse senator Ted Cruz and overnight more good news for Cruz. he easily won the Utah caucuses taking all 40 of the state's delegates because of his margin of victory. But Donald Trump won Arizona so Trump gets all 58 of that state's delegates. As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton also won Arizona where some voters waited in line for up to five hours to cast ballots. That was Clinton's only win of the night. Senator Bernie Sanders scored a decisive victory in the Utah caucuses, also prevailing in Idaho. He says it gives him confidence more victories are ahead. Now, back to Senator Ted Cruz. He's facing harsh criticism for calling on police to patrol Muslim neighborhoods here in the U.S. in the wake of the Brussels attacks. Earlier this morning George asked him about it.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator, your proposal to have police patrol Muslim neighborhoods is drawing a lot of fire from John Kasich. Bernie Sanders calls it unconstitutional, Hillary Clinton offensive and dangerous.
TED CRUZ: Yesterday reminded everyone that we are facing a war from radical Islamic terrorism. President Obama, Hillary Clinton, they refuse to acknowledge, they refuse even to say the words radical Islamic terrorism.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But how is targeting Muslim neighborhoods constitutional?
CRUZ: What we should target is radical Islamic terrorism and the political correctness of this administration. They refuse to acknowledge that we are facing a global jihad from radical Islamic terrorism. Indeed, after just about after every one of these attack, whether Paris, whether San Bernardino and certainly coming after Brussels, President Obama goes on TV and lectures Americans on Islamophobia. Enough is enough.
LLAMAS: And also this morning, Cruz called Donald Trump classless for threatening on Twitter to, quote, “spill the beans on Cruz's wife.” Trump upset over a super PAC attack ad that showed his wife didn't elaborate on that threat.
