Ted Cruz called on MSNBC’s Jen Psaki and Rachel Maddow to apologize for laughing during Super Tuesday coverage discussing Republican voters’ concerns about immigration issues at the border, he said during an appearance on Fox News with anchor Harris Faulkner.
After Psaki noted that voters in Virginia had said immigration was their top issue, Maddow quipped, “Well, Virginia does have a border with West Virginia,” to laughs from the panel before jokingly describing it as a “very contested area.”
“I’ve actually called on Jen Psaki and Rachel Maddow to apologize for that,” Cruz said.
Some conservatives have expressed outrage at the MSNBC panel’s reaction to exit poll numbers showing how highly voters have prioritized immigration compared with other issues, including Megyn Kelly calling out this moment in the coverage earlier this week.
Cruz and Faulkner were sharing their thoughts on the ongoing conversation around immigration and the border, a topic President Joe Biden is expected to discuss in his State of the Union address on Thursday. Cruz weighed in with his feelings about Maddow and Psaki’s remarks about Virginia GOP primary voters’ concerns, along with their laughter at the absurdity of that being their top concern.
“I mean, if you look at some of these exit polls — I mean, I live in Virginia. Immigration was the number one issue, of course,” Psaki had said, before Maddow weighed in with her wry comment about Virginia’s border. The state is nearly 2,000 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
Psaki continued: “What I mean, when I was in New Hampshire, people were talking about the northern border as a threat because Trump has indoctrinated people with this fear of people who do not, like, look like them being a threat.”
Per an NBC News exit poll, 37% of Republican Virginia voters said immigration was their top issue and that it is ultimately influencing who they vote for. Cruz slammed the MSNBC anchors, saying they could consider those who may have had personal experiences with violence by migrants.
“I mentioned Jeremy Caceres a second ago, he was murdered about 30 miles away from Jen Psaki’s $1.7 million home in Arlington, Virginia — but from her perspective, that apparently is a laughing matter,” Cruz said.
“She doesn’t understand why families are concerned when their children are being murdered by illegal aliens,” he continued. “Across the country, a whole lot of families understand, and we want to protect our families. We want to support law enforcement and secure the border. I think that clip is emblematic of how out of touch corporate media is, sitting there laughing at, ‘who are these peasants to be worried about this?’ It’s why so many people are understandably upset.”
Cruz’s comments came after the MSNBC hosts’ Super Tuesday coverage discussing what motivates Republican voters. Maddow and Psaki’s fellow panelist Joy-Ann Reid had broken down earlier in the conversation why Republican voters see immigration as such a major issue.
“Republican voters don’t vote that way. They don’t vote based on economics or based on the benefits they’re getting economically from the president,” Reid said. “They’re increasingly, from the Tea Party on, they’re voting on race. They’re voting on this idea of an invasion of brown people over the border. The idea that they can’t get whatever job they want, a Black person got it, therefore drive all the Black folks out of the colleges, get rid of DEI. That is what they’re voting on. They’re just voting specifically on racial animus at this stage. It isn’t about economics.”
You can watch the Fox News segment at the top of this story.
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