Liberal Media Hit Cruz for IRS Joke, MRCTV Fact-Checks

Barbara Boland | April 9, 2015
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CNBC reporter John Harwood said that comments Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-Tx) has made don’t “comport with the facts” and then cited an MRCTV exclusive story from February as proof: “125,000 I.R.S. agents, send 'em to the border."  

Cruz said the line was a “joke,” but the liberal media is already off to the races with the claim: “CNBC Reporter Challenges Ted Cruz: Why Should Anyone Listen to You When Your Facts Are Wrong?”

From Mediaite:

In an interview with CNBC, GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz expressed anger towards the “left-wing editorial writers” who liked to call him out for making “non-factual statements.”

Cruz, speaking to John Harwood during a ten-question interview, dismissed the tendency of people to do things like fact-check his claims supporting his argument that the IRS should be abolished…”

The reporter who interviewed Cruz, probably trying to capitalize on momentum from fellow Republican candidate Rand Paul’s tangles with the media yesterday, used the headline: “Sen. Ted Cruz blames the media for distorting his image.”

Cruz may have made the comment more than once, but the claim that drew the most attention was the one I reported on that Cruz delivered at CPAC, and The Drudge Report linked to.

Since I am the one who broke this story, I think I’m in as good a position as any to judge whether or not his line was a clever quip, or should be subject to the scrutiny of Politifact checks.

You can watch Cruz deliver the line for yourself. Cruz delivered it with a smile and the audience reacted with laughter and applause.

 

 

CNBC didn't run the question in their 4-minute video segment. The video has silly-sounding music playing in the background as Cruz speaks, and even freezes to an unflattering still when Cruz says “I get portrayed in a lot of media outlets as a wild-eyed lunatic.”

CNBC is apparently happy to prove Cruz's point, as most of the questions are framed negatively, and the video is heavily edited (watch the food on the plates.)

 

Full text of Harwood’s question to Cruz from CNBC article:

Harwood: You've said a few things that don't necessarily comport with the facts, like, "125,000 I.R.S. agents, send 'em to the border." They've only got 25,000 agents or something like. You've talked about the job-killing nature of Obamacare. We're adding jobs at a very healthy clip right now. Why shouldn't somebody listen to you and say, "The guy'll just say anything - doesn't have to be true"?

Cruz: There is a game that is played by left-wing editorial writers. It's this new species of yellow journalism called politi-fact. Colloquially I was referring to all the employees as agents.

That particular stat is in a joke I used. So, they're literally fact-checking a joke. I say that explicitly tongue in cheek.

Is Cruz’s claim factually accurate?

The IRS had around 90,000 employees in 2014, and is part of the Department of the Treasury, which has 110,000 employees (for those that thought Cruz actually planned to send IRS agents to the border.)

P.S. If that was you, you might want to search for your missing funny bone.

 

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