A prominent Democratic analyst set a trap on Tuesday night and woke up on Wednesday seeing that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had taken the bait.
John Favreau, host of the "Pod Save America" podcast, posted on X on Tuesday that Democrats should admit they may have been too lenient in letting some criminals out of jail. The post generated outrage on both the left and right, Favreau said.
But the response Cruz offered to the post stunned Favreau. Cruz's reply began with "True," which Favreau noted had a curious double-meaning given the context of his post.
He joined podcast producer Elijah Cone on a new episode on Wednesday to discuss the reactions.
"So, he does think that some politicians have been way too lenient in letting out those people who've committed all those crimes, like Donald Trump," Favreau said. "Ted Cruz has not said a single word since Donald Trump gave those pardons to the January 6th rioters. Not a word about it. No comment from him."
"This will be the first comment that he made accidentally, inadvertently," he continued. "He has an inadvertent response to Trump's January 6 pardons."
"No one has let more violent criminals out of jail this year than Donald Trump," Favreau said.
"How do you feel now that you've set out bait and got Ted Cruz to take it?" Cone asked.
"The serious point here is I do not want us to let go of the argument that you cannot call Donald Trump tough on crime and Democrats soft on crime when the way that Donald Trump feels about crime is that crime is committed by people he doesn't like or people who oppose him, he is going to crack down on," Favreau replied.
