There is very little that is more infuriating than watching an American Republican politician attempt to get around questions about gun control right after a large tragedy. Their immediate reflex is to put some blame on the reporter. The question is crass, the reporter is the one without a soul, “How can you be thinking about politics in a moment like this”? We’ve all seen it.

The process usually moves along the well-marked trail. If the reporter presses and says this is the time to talk, whether political or not, this is exactly what people are talking about, at that point, the politician usually will find some combination of the “media being complicit with the Democrats” and “asking for solutions that won’t do anything to stop the problem.” Generally, the reporter is either forced to give up or almost instinctively gives up because they’ve also been down this road so many times before.

But today, a Sky News reporter went down the well-trodden path and veered off by challenging Cruz in saying that he had spoken to everyone there and people were demanding answers. (Sky News is headquartered in the U.K.) Ted reached for the old staple, nothing that the Democrats proposed would have stopped what happened. The reporter then asked, “Then why does this only happen in America? What part of American exceptionalism leads to this?”

Ted Cruz knew he was in trouble and thus changed the topic, again making the reporter the bad guy, “I am sorry that you feel that way about American exceptionalism.” The reporter immediately said that he was focused only on this one issue of American exceptionalism. At that point, Ted began to make his breakaway. But the reporter pressed on, saying the rest of the world cannot figure out why America won’t do something about this and that it only happens in America.

Someone in Ted’s entourage said it doesn’t just happen in America and the reporter rightly insisted, yes, it does only happen in America (at least as a matter of routine). And then the reporter got to the heart of the matter and asked a leading question, one that leads to the truth, and asked, “You can’t answer this question, can you, Senator?”

It was brilliant and American reporters should watch and take note. While it is often easier for an outsider to see things with more clarity than those of us who’ve seen these hundreds of times before and thus speak to the Republicans with more clarity, American reporters can relearn how to be shocked.

American reporters, take note. This is how it’s done. pic.twitter.com/6x0Fgo5vPs

— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) May 26, 2022

As you can see, this is how it is done. You can also see that the clip is brought by our friends at MT. Help them out if you can, we have no financial relationship with them. We just support their work.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman