We all know that in politics there is a lot of monkey business that goes on during any given election cycle. Usually it’s opposing campaigns that tend to make off-color and insulting jabs against their political opponents, but then there are times the media actually “jumps the shark.”
This was the case with The Washington Post, who posted a editorialized cartoon by cartoonist Ann Telnaes depicting Senator Ted Cruz’s two young daughters as monkeys after Cruz releases a campaign video that showed him reading “politically-related Christmas stories to them.”The newspapers editorial page editor Fred Hiatt responded:
“It’s generally been the policy of our editorial section to leave children out of it. I failed to look at this cartoon before it was published. I understand why Ann thought an exception to the policy was warranted in this case, but I do not agree.”
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The Post has since taken down the cartoon, after Cruz tweeted his disapproval.
Classy. @washingtonpost makes fun of my girls. Stick w/ attacking me–Caroline & Catherine are out of your league. https://t.co/N61ys6z8w1
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 22, 2015
Senator Marco Rubio, who is engaged in a tear-down fight with Cruz for second place in the 2016 GOP presidential primary race, also took to Twitter to call out The Post for posting the tasteless cartoon.
Wash Post cartoon featuring @tedcruz’s children is disgusting. The Post saying the kids are “fair game” is even worse.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 23, 2015