My interview with Rick Tyler, former Cruz campaign spokesman and MSNBC Contributor
Takeaway #1: This guy knows his stuff. Takeaway #2: Ted Cruz is running for President in 2020.
One of the things that shocked me most across our RNC coverage was how open people were to being interviewed and questioned. Regardless of how depressing this election can be at moments, it’s necessary sometimes to remember that both sides aren’t run by a pack of evil people hell-bent on destroying the country; more often than not, elections are run by honest, honorable people who are standing up for what they believe in.
That compliment absolutely extends to Rick Tyler, former Cruz campaign communications director and current MSNBC political analyst, who I literally met in the street walking towards our studio, chatted with for a few minutes, and then was told that he’d love to come on the podcast and talk politics (in between segments on MSNBC). Needless to say, I was thrilled to talk with him — and he sat down with us for close to an hour. We’ve edited that down to 30 minutes, and the results are below.
Here’s my takeaways from the interview:
1. Ted Cruz will run for President in 2020.
Not that I didn’t see that coming. It’s been political lore for a while now — and for proof, just read Eliana Johnson and Tim Alberta’s reporting over at National Review, detailing how Cruz’s whole Senate staff and his assorted Super PACs have already begun the process of organizing for 2020. That said, I thought it would be necessary that the Cruz campaign have a real, coherent narrative coming out of the 2016 RNC, to ensure that conservatives wouldn’t fault Cruz for a Trump loss but also so that Cruz could emerge victorious in the 2020 primaries. I’m still not totally convinced of it, but the campaign already has their post-speech spin in order.
2. Ted Cruz’s decision to promote Trump at the campaign’s start and take him down near the end was 100% political posturing.
Early in the interview, I asked Rick Tyler about the Cruz campaign’s decision to speak of Donald Trump in a friendly manner, well after Donald had already called undocumented immigrants rapists and criminals, then flip to hating him closer to the end of the campaign. While I established my question in a way that would’ve given Mr. Tyler the ability to say, “Well, it was because Trump got personal,” Rick Tyler admitted the real underlying reason for Cruz’s change of heart: Cruz had no name ID, he needed it, and attacking Trump wasn’t going to get him there. There’s nothing wrong with this strategy, but it was interesting to me to hear it stated so bluntly and out in the open — and a reminder that of the GOP field, Cruz’s campaign was one of the better at strategy. That said, I personally think Trump’s campaign torpedoed that brilliantly. If everyone’s playing the same political game, then sure, that shift could work; if Trump comes along and targets other candidates for playing politics, then it couldn’t. Mr. Tyler and I agree on that during the interview, but it’s pretty clear that element of Cruz’s strategy won’t change next time around; Mr. Tyler believes the Trump phenomenon is a one-off, and without a personality as big as Donald Trump in 2020, the failure of Cruz’s 2016 strategy won’t happen again.
3. Even to Republican political strategists, Manafort’s decision to deny Melania’s plagiarism was “Orwellian.”
Trump’s campaign has carried with it a strong whiff of authoritarianism since its start, and the campaign’s decision to deny that Melania plagiarized part of her RNC speech for two full days — insisting that the Liberal Media was out to get her — was not only a strange exercise in political strategy, but a frightening one. I elaborated on this idea during the second broadcast of RealPolitics Live:
By and large, Rick Tyler agreed. However, he also asserted that this is a phenomenon unique to Trump, and it wouldn’t work without his organic reach across social media and without his natural platform as a reality TV and tabloid star.
4. The media sucks.
While Rick Tyler was hesitant to ascribe it to just conservative media, faulting liberal media as well (and citing Hillary Clinton’s reluctance to hold press conferences — not one in over 200 days), Mr. Tyler and I both agreed that Trump thrives on the lack of trust that liberals and conservatives have in mainstream media. The bias of media towards sensationalism has poisoned our politics, and that’s what’s created the conditions for a demagogue like Trump to thrive.
Anyhow, those are my takeaways — I’d love to hear yours, so comment below if you have any critiques/comments on the interview! Also, be sure to listen to Episode 1 of the RealPolitics Podcast to hear this interview and a whole lot more.
