Earlier this month, ESPN gave Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) an extended platform on its marquee college football show, College GameDay. It did not go well.
But Cruz, exercising the kind of fact-defying delusion that only politicians can, claims it went incredibly well.
“The response was overwhelmingly positive,” Cruz told Front Office Sports, via Drew Lerner of Awful Announcing. “And the critics were mostly partisans who were just engaged in partisan games. It’s a little ridiculous to say, ‘Gosh, College GameDay should not talk about college sports,’ which is what we were talking about, and the rules that govern college sports and bringing — saving college sports. That’s what the whole show is about.”
The response, Ted, was overwhelmingly negative. Both in person, where he was booed and subjected to a “Ted you suck” chant, and among those who were perplexed to see a football pregame show morph into a one-sided episode of Face The Nation.
No one wanted to hear from Cruz in the hours before a full slate of college football games, and it was shameful for ESPN to let Cruz push for the passage of the bill without giving equal time to the opposition.
And, yes, it’s easy for Cruz to dismiss the negativity as “partisan.” But this is, as Cruz likes to point out, a bipartisan bill. The opposition is bipartisan, too.
As is the public’s general disdain for Cruz, who keeps getting elected only because he’s a Republican in a blood-red state.