Chris Moody, CNN – April 6, 2016
Heidi Cruz was back in the spotlight Tuesday — but this time it wasn’t because of Donald Trump. During his victory speech in Wisconsin, Ted Cruz made a point of repeatedly praising his wife, who stood on stage beside the Texas senator. It was a not-so-subtle response to Trump, who has come under fire for retweeting an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz last month.
Jose A. DelReal, Washington Post – April 2, 2016
Amid ongoing scrutiny over his views on women, real estate mogul Donald Trump conceded that he made a mistake last week when he retweeted an unflattering photograph of Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife. “Yeah, it was a mistake,” he told Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, in a story published online Saturday. “If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have sent it.”
Jennifer Weiner, New York Times – March 26, 2016
In this strangest of primary seasons, women exist primarily in terms of their relationships to the men they marry or question or critique. They can either be beauties or beasts or “the love of my life.” They can be “crazy” or “losers,” “fat pigs” or “dogs.” They can be mothers and daughters. They can be the currency with which you buy voters’ belief in your machismo and alpha-maleness, or they can be the sand you kick in the face of a “New York bully.” In every case, whether they are assets or liabilities, they are objects. In no case are they people.
Jose A. DelReal and Jenna Johnson, Washington Post – March 25, 2016
The altercation underscores the striking nastiness of the GOP primary race and the uncomfortable gender politics surrounding Trump, who has a long history of making incendiary remarks about women and their appearance.
Callum Borchers, Washington Post – March 25, 2016
CNN anchor Kate Bolduan, who’s had an eventful couple days on the air, shook her head in dismay as Adriana Cohen, a Trump enthusiast, hijacked a live interview that also included former Cruz spokeswoman Amanda Carpenter and steered it straight into the gutter.
Callum Borchers, Washington Post – March 25, 2016
If news outlets needed to be reminded of just how valuable and necessary diversity in their ranks really is, Donald Trump’s nasty campaign of innuendo and objectification against Heidi Cruz this week ought to do the trick.
Terrence Dop, Bloomberg Politics – March 24, 2016
In the opening salvos of a two-week fight for Wisconsin, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz called Republican rival Donald Trump a coward after the billionaire threatened to “spill the beans” on the lawmaker’s wife. “It’s not easy to tick me off. I don’t get angry often. But you mess with my kids, you mess with my wife—that’ll do it every time,” Cruz told reporters on Thursday before touring a metal-fabrication plant in Dane, Wisconsin. “Donald, you’re a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone.”
Emma Green, The Atlantic – March 24, 2016
The use of wives as proxies in the struggle between the two leading Republican contenders shows how much American conservatism has changed.
Brian Stelter, CNN Monday – March 24, 2016
Kelly, who rarely opines on Trump controversies, responded Thursday to a tweet by Trump that showed his wife Melania and Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi, side by side. Kelly’s point of view was unmistakable. With her tweet, the Fox News anchor was speaking for many women — and men — who were repulsed by the GOP frontrunner’s online behavior.
Jay Newton-Small, TIME – March 24, 2016
The latest exchange is just another example of Trump’s small hands tizzy, says Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics. “Instead of responding to the attack on Melania from the anti-Trump PAC by calling it out for the misogyny it represents, Trump played into the same type of objectification of women by endorsing a response that placed his wife’s — and Heidi Cruz’s — value in appearance alone,” Dittmar said. “This back-and-forth is yet another display of both men seeking to reinforce their masculinity in different ways, whether by — in Trump’s case — competing to be the candidate with the hottest wife, or — in Cruz’s case — by embodying the role of protector and defender of his family.”