When former Texas Gov. Rick Perry couldn’t list all three government agencies he would eliminate if elected President during a 2012 debate, the gaffe was seen as a teachable moment for future candidates.
Too bad fellow Texan, Sen. Ted Cruz, missed the lesson.
“A lesson could not have been more clear: If you are a statewide elected official from Texas participating in a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by a financial news network in the second week of November, then the one thing you should not do is list the federal agencies you would propose to cut using your fingers,” host Trevor Noah explained on Wednesday night’s “Daily Show.” “That’s all you have to not do. It’s a very specific lesson that everyone understood. Almost everyone.”
On Tuesday’s debate, Cruz proposed eliminating five government agencies: the IRS, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce and House and Urban Development.
“Why? Why does this keep happening? It should not be this hard to remember a list of three to five things,” Noah said. “It’s like Ted Cruz is in a Greek tragedy where someone shows him his terrible destiny and he trains and he tries hard and he does everything he can to avoid it, but he still ends up banging his mom.”
Noah could not accept the slip-up.
“You’re auditioning to be the President of the United States of America. You can’t remember numbers?! Now you want people to trust you with nuclear codes.”
Watch the clip, from Comedy Central, below:
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He obviously meant the Department of Redundancy Department.
Prior to the debate, Cruz’s defenders were pushing the meme that Ted has an audiographic memory (remembering absolutely everything he’s ever heard, down to the pauses) and this is why he always sounds so rehearsed. I guess that infallible memory failed Cruz in that moment.
Maybe one of Ted’s handlers should have read him the list.
Give him a break. He had the reputation of Texas to uphold, and he did just fine. No one thinks any less of Texas than they did before.
Come on, Trevor. Let’s see YOU try to remember a list of three to five things. Yeah, didn’t think so. Who’s laughing now?