Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was pressed by reporters this week about how his podcast radio network, iHeartMedia, funneled millions of dollars to a super PAC supporting his re-election campaign. Afterwards, he lashed out at the reporter.
When asked by ABC13 reporter Shannon Ryan about ABC13's bombshell report, Cruz quipped, “It's really sad what happened to the media.” houston chronicle.
last week, chronicle It revealed that iHeartMedia had transferred more than $630,000 to Truth and Courage PAC since March 2023, accounting for about one-third of the committee's total donations during that period. Experts told the Chronicle that the payments “appear to be a novel arrangement that blurs the lines of what is permissible” under Senate ethics rules and campaign finance laws.
Cruz, who started his podcast “The Verdict” in 2020 and quickly gained a loyal MAGA audience, announced in October 2022 that iHeartMedia had picked up the show, making it available for airplay on 850 radio stations. He said it was a “tough deal'' because it would involve a lot of work. The watchdog group quickly filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee, accusing Cruz of violating rules barring members of Congress from accepting gifts from registered lobbyists (iHeartMedia). Mr. Cruz claimed at the time that he received no financial benefit from the arrangement, but the commission ultimately dismissed the charges.
The company claims the payments to iHeartMedia are related to Verdict's ad revenue, but that appears to contradict the senator's claim that he was not paid to host the three-times-a-week podcast. Dew. In fact, the PAC reports its payments as “other receipts” rather than as political contributions. But both Mr. Cruz and the media giants insisted: chronicle The Texas Republican “gives up his time to host this podcast and receives no compensation.”
Ryan caught up with Cruz on Tuesday and confronted him about the podcast and the large payments his PAC received from iHeartMedia. After the senator claimed he was doing the show because the media wouldn't report the actual news, the Houston-based reporter wondered how he could still claim he wasn't paid for the verdict.
“So if the companies that employ your lobbyists are contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to your re-election efforts, how can you say you're not being compensated?” Ryan asked.
“You know, it's really sad what's happened to the media, which is that they now seem to be parroting the attacks of left-wing Democrats,” Cruz shot back. He also derided the Election Legal Center, the watchdog that first filed the ethics complaint in 2022, as a “left-wing Democratic attack group” and said the Senate had found he had not violated any ethics laws. It pointed out.
Meanwhile, Ryan noted in his report that the initial ethics complaint only challenged the podcast contract itself, and the iHeartMedia money currently flowing to the PAC has not yet been investigated.
In the end, Mr. Cruz ended the interview by once again cutting off Mr. Ryan and the press.
“So all that's left for Democrats is to make false personal attacks,” he fumed. “I understand carrying water, but my request is simple: please actually cover the problem.”
