Report: “The Ugly Truth Behind Ted Cruz’s Super PAC Podcast”
AUSTIN, Texas – Ted Cruz’s podcast scandal is growing by the day – and now a report in The Daily Beast has revealed new information about Cruz’s “seemingly unprecedented” deal with iHeartMedia.
The report found “campaign finance records showing tens of thousands of dollars in iHeart lobbyist contributions going to the Cruz campaign,” as “experts in campaign finance regulations, government ethics, and tax law raised a slew of potential legal and ethical issues.”
“Questions to Cruz’s office and various people and entities directly affiliated with Truth and Courage went unanswered.”
The Daily Beast: The Ugly Truth Behind Ted Cruz’s Super PAC Podcast
By Roger Sollenberger and Mini Racker
In recent weeks, a number of news reports have delved into the legal questions about a super PAC generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate revenue from a popular podcaster: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
In fact, in conversations with The Daily Beast, experts in campaign finance regulations, government ethics, and tax law raised a slew of potential legal and ethical issues, with Cruz characteristically darkening the gray area.
But the most basic details about the arrangement still haven’t been clarified, and none of the parties involved—including iHeartMedia—will answer those simple central questions.
Additionally, The Daily Beast has uncovered new information, with campaign finance records showing tens of thousands of dollars in iHeart lobbyist contributions going to the Cruz campaign.
Questions to Cruz’s office and various people and entities directly affiliated with Truth and Courage went unanswered.
Verdict has had dozens of advertisers, including some explicitly right-wing companies as well as some more mainstream ones. Until recently, one of them was energy company BP America, which the Dallas Morning News recently reported pulled its ads after learning that the money funded a super PAC.
At least one other advertiser on the show—LMI, a management consulting firm—is a government contractor as well, according to Defense News.
Cruz’s campaign committee has received political contributions from at least 15 employees at nine firms that have, since the podcast launched in 2020, registered to lobby the federal government on behalf of iHeart, according to a comparative analysis of FEC records and lobbying data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Seven of those employees registered to lobby for iHeartMedia specifically, and all seven contributed to the Cruz campaign after he signed the 2022 deal—for a combined $20,300 in campaign donations over the last two election cycles.
On Monday, independent investigative outlet Popular Information reported that, in the spring of 2023, Cruz sponsored a bill that would bar automakers from removing AM radios from some cars. The report noted that iHeart’s portfolio includes more than 250 AM stations.
Cruz was one of the original co-sponsors when that bill was introduced last May—two months after iHeart began making its revenue payments to Truth and Courage. In the following months, the Cruz campaign saw more than $12,000 come in from registered iHeart lobbyists, FEC records show.
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