Thursday night’s NBC Nightly News broadcast tried to shame Ted Cruz for earning the wrath of former House speaker John Boehner. During a speech at Stanford University yesterday, Boehner told students that he would vote for Cruz “over his dead body” and “that miserable son of a bitch” was “Lucifer in the flesh.” That crass characterization didn’t earn Boehner any harsh words from NBC but it did for Cruz, whom NBC reminded viewers was “the most hated man on Capitol Hill.”
Anchor Lester Holt opened the segment, characterizing Boehner’s unhinged rhetoric as simply “an unguarded moment” of “what he really thinks of the man trying to stop Donald Trump.” Correspondent Hallie Jackson called Boehner Cruz’s “old enemy” despite Cruz denying that the pair were ever anything more than acquaintances.
But the worst part of the report came when Jackson actually scolded Cruz for earning the wrath of the D.C. Republicans, saying that he needed their “help” if he wants to win the nomination, because he’s considered the “most hated man on Capitol Hill.”
JACKSON: But to stop Trump, Cruz needs help from more members of the GOP including the D.C. Establishment he's been fighting for years. During the 2013 shutdown famously huddling with members of congress at this D.C. Restaurant to try to turn them against leaders like Boehner. Cruz considered by someone of the most hated man on Capitol Hill. Now Trump is trying to prove he's the one that can work with Washington picking up new congressional endorsements today and sending top staff to argue Senator Cruz has no shot.
CBS’s Scott Pelley, instead noted that Boehner was part of the “establishment” and was appearing to board “the Trump train.” Reporter Julianna Goldman repeated again at the end of the report that Boehner was part of the “establishment Republicans.”
ABC’s report on the exchange was mostly straightforward, apart from the end where anchor David Muir noted that Cruz wore Boehner's insult “as a badge of honor” apparently bringing it up to Indiana voters repeatedly.
