On Thursday's New Day on CNN, during a discussion of whether GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz being born in Canada is responsible for hurting his Iowa poll numbers since last month, CNN co-anchor Chris Cuomo at one point gloated that the Texas Senator has been a "divider" who is being "hoisted on his own petard." And, without offering evidence that Cruz ever questioned President Barack Obama's qualifications to hold the office due to birth, Cuomo even lumped him in with the anti-Obama birther movement.
After CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish theorized that Donald Trump was succeeding in painting Cruz as an "other," Cuomo declared: "You know, what's interesting for Ted Cruz is, again, another very, very bright guy, he is. Politically, what's happening to him is called being hoisted on his own petard. He was the divider. That was what his role was. 'I don't like these other Republicans. I don't like these people coming across the border. I don't like what's going on with Obama's birth certificate.' Now, it's being used on him by Trump who plays by even looser rules than ordinary politicians do."
At 7:26 a.m. ET, co-host Alisyn Camerota raised the issue of Cruz's poll numbers:
Something is going on with Ted Cruz and the numbers because yesterday the Des Moines Register released a new poll, and it shows his numbers have softened since December. Back then, a month ago, he was at 31 percent in Iowa, today 25 percent. Do you think it's the questions about his eligibility that Donald Trump has raised? What do you see behind those numbers?
Smerconish began his response:
I do, in part, and what I'm saying is belied by the internals. Because when you go to the internals in several of these polls, people are saying in Iowa, "No, that's not a big issue to me." In fact, 85 percent, the last figure that I saw of individuals who say that they really don't think that's significant.
He then added:
But maybe we're not asking the question in the right way. Maybe it's not that they're troubled by his birth in Canada, but that Trump is being effective, again, because he did this relative to President Obama, as painting an opponent as an other. In other words, he's not one of us, you know, he's something different than those of us who were born in the United States.
I really don't think it's about disqualifying Ted Cruz. I think it's very similar to when Trump said, you know, "Not too many evangelicals have come from Cuba." What did he mean by that? I think I know what he means.
It was at this point that Cuomo shot back:
You know, what's interesting for Ted Cruz is, again, another very, very bright guy, he is. Politically, what's happening to him is called being hoisted on his own petard. He was the divider. That was what his role was. "I don't like these other Republicans. I don't like these people coming across the border. I don't like what's going on with Obama's birth certificate." Now, it's being used on him by Trump who plays by even looser rules than ordinary politicians do.
And he hasn't figured out how to come back with it. Couldn't that be enough to move the needle as much as it's moved in Iowa? His defense of himself has taken him off offense.
