Ted Cruz's campaign manager has a theory on why the press is hammering Donald Trump now

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last updated 14 June 2016

It is no fun to lose to Donald Trump, top aides for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush told The Huffington Post's Sam Stein over coffee and pastries at a Washington, D.C., bar. The entire group interview with Jeff Roe (Cruz's campaign manager), Alex Conant (Rubio's communications director), and Danny Diaz (Bush's campaign manager) is worth a read, but Roe in particular had some interesting thoughts on why Donald Trump's comments about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel's "Mexican heritage" have landed him in hot water when other offensive statements either helped Trump or didn't hurt him in the polls.

Stein mentioned a few of the "times when people were like, 'Well, this is going to do him in,'" specifically when Trump "said John McCain wasn't a war hero, or the Megyn Kelly menstruating comment, or making fun of a disabled reporter." Then he asked the rival campaign chiefs: "Which one made you say, 'This guy is smoked'?" Here's Roe's answer:

All of the above. There was a time when you wondered if the bug was going to meet the windshield or not. But everything was brand-consistent. His brand was being politically incorrect: He's saying everything that you've always wanted to say. You might not like it, but he's speaking for you. He's the billionaire blue-collar guy. That's why this Mexican judge thing is different. That's him looking out for himself, instead of him looking out for you. [Jeff Roe, to The Huffington Post]

Roe came back to it later, when Stein asked if he really believed "the media was holding off on Trump during the primary?" "I believe that there were financial decisions made in media suites on who they wanted to have as a nominee and what they would do to him after he became a nominee," Roe replied. "I don't think all of this is accidental. I really don't ... This judge situation? This story in November would've been, 'Oh, this is just Trump.'" Diaz, who argued that Trump is using the same playbook but that it's not working with a general electorate, agreed with Roe about the media: "The media would be wise to come out and tell the truth, which is: We make business decisions, and the reality is that this guy sells magazines and ads." Pretty clever, media. Read the rest at The Huffington Post.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.