The Washington Post stirred up a hornet's nest on Tuesday, when it published an editorial cartoon by Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes depicting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's daughters as monkey-like animals, accusing Cruz of using his children as campaign props.
The paper published the cartoon after Cruz's campaign released an ad called “Ted Cruz’s Christmas classics” that shows Cruz reading politically-themed Christmas stories to his two young daughters.
"Ted Cruz has put his children in a political ad- don't start screaming when editorial cartoonists draw them as well," Telanes tweeted on Tuesday with a link to the video.
By Tuesday night though, the cartoon had been pulled and replaced with an editor's note, after swift backlash from readers, candidates and Cruz himself. Telnaes also deleted a tweet showing the animated cartoon.
Despite Cruz's objections to the content of the cartoon, his campaign was quick to republish it as part of an email fundraising push Tuesday night.
.@tedcruz already out with a fundraising email off the cartoon controversy asking for "emergency" donations. pic.twitter.com/GyAfdJuYLp— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) December 23, 2015
Cruz also blasted the cartoon on Twitter, telling the paper to "stick w/attacking me."
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
Cruz's fellow senator, Marco Rubio of Florida, who is also running for the Republican presidential nomination also came to his defense. The two men have been tangling in bitter policy fights for weeks.
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
Cruz's supporters also pushed back.
Are you freaking kidding me? I'm a Conservative & VERY political & I don't attack candidates kids or non-political spouses! SAD! @AnnTelnaes— Chuck Nellis (@ChuckNellis) December 22, 2015
Anyone else find @AnnTelnaes 's obsession with mocking the Cruz kids kinda creepy?— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) December 23, 2015
@AnnTelnaes when did family values become a joke? He's a proud father. Or is that no longer normal?— Nobody (@Rosie_Brush) December 22, 2015
Even some prominent Democrats, including a former Democratic National Committee staffer and a top staffer to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, objected.
This is not OK. At all. https://t.co/Mcl3f492vs— Adam Jentleson (@AJentleson) December 23, 2015
I'm no Ted Cruz fan. But he's right to be pissed about this. WaPo cartoon went too far. https://t.co/gBliO7hn8D— Mo Elleithee (@MoElleithee) December 23, 2015
Later Tuesday night, the Post pulled the cartoon from its website. It was replaced with a statement from Fred Hiatt, the paper's editorial page editor.
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.