‘Drudge Report’ Is The ‘Attack Site’ For Trump, Says Cruz

The Drudge Report has been unfairly taking on Ted Cruz, the Texas senator alleged in a radio interview with the Southern California-based Mike Slater Show. Cruz said that in “about the past month the Drudge Report has basically become the attack site for the Donald Trump campaign.”

“Drudge Report over the years has done a good job highlighting the excesses of the left and the excesses of liberalism, and about the past month the Drudge Report has basically become the attack site for the Donald Trump campaign. And so every day they have the latest Trump attack, they’re directed at me. By all appearances, Roger Stone now decides what’s on Drudge. And most days, they have six-month-old article that is some attack on me and it’s whatever the Trump campaign is pushing that day will be the banner headline on Drudge.”

Host Mike Slater cited a headline on the Drudge Report from a few weeks back that said, “Pastor call for execution of gays, then introduces Ted Cruz.” However, the pastor was referring to “spiritual death,” according to Slater. Additionally, the Drudge Report posted a video from 2012 of church leaders laying their hands on Cruz, which Slater said made Cruz look like a “weirdo.”

Trump, Drudge Accuse Cruz of Stealing Colorado Delegates

There was a case in point recently when, following the decision of Colorado Republicans to reward all of its delegates to Ted Cruz, Trump accused the Cruz campaign of being “unfair.”

How is it possible that the people of the great State of Colorado never got to vote in the Republican Primary? Great anger – totally unfair!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2016

Matt Drudge, the host of the Drudge Report, followed with his own tweets that echoed Trump’s complaints.

https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/719496648544505856

https://twitter.com/DRUDGE/status/719337730673676288

However, the Denver Post reported last August that Colorado Republicans had cancelled their quadrennial poll.

The Post also said, “Republicans still will hold precinct caucus meetings in early 2016 to begin the process of selecting delegates for the national convention — but the 37 delegates are not pledged to any specific candidate…The presidential campaigns still may try to win delegate slots for their supporters, but experts say the move makes it less likely that candidates will visit Colorado to court voters.”

But George Athanasopoulos, a Republican candidate for Congress who supports Cruz, told the National Review that Cruz’s team “started organizing on the grassroots level last summer. You don’t show up a week before the state assembly and expect to win.”

“Trump is very good at sweeping in on his private plane, holding a huge rally, and winning an open primary, because that’s how his campaign is built. But in Colorado, you have to be there, you have to put in the work, you have to put in the effort, and you have to do it months ahead of time. That’s how you’re successful in Colorado.”

Drudge Aiming at Ted Cruz

According to the Hill, Drudge responded to Cruz’s Colorado victory by “posting a link to a January interview where Cruz remarked positively, ‘We have got the internet, we have got the Drudge Report.'”

The Washington Post noted that Drudge currently has links to nine stories with strongly worded anti-Cruz headlines, including “Savage: Cruz should disavow rigged Colorado election … Buchanan: Apparatchiks thieve delegates for Ted… 1 MILLION REPUBLICANS SIDELINED … Border Patrol Agents: Colorado Voters Disenfranchised.”

The Post further warned that Drudge’s apparent support for Trump could spell trouble for Cruz, noting that “the Drudge attacks are breaking through on social media in a significant way.”

“If it was just Trump complaining about the ‘crooked’ system, it would seem like sour grapes from a guy who got out-hustled. But The Donald’s allies in the right-wing media, including Drudge and Breitbart, are trying to make Cruz’s wins seem illegitimate in the eyes of the conservative base. If Cruz wins the nomination at a contested convention in Cleveland, he will need these grass-roots activists to rally around him. If regular Drudge readers believe he did not win fair and square, they will be less inclined to do so.“

[Photo by Michael Caulfield/AP Images]