Who is Ray Epps?
Just asking questions.
Just spreading a false narrative.
Just raising money.
There is more than one way to bear false witness in politics.
Ray Epps is collateral damage.
Let me give liars some practical advice. It is smarter to exaggerate than outright lie. Claim something big. Stick to a landslide claim. If you claim a landslide then surely you must have at least won. A big claim moves the area of potential disagreement in your favor.
Here is another one. When making accusations that embed false facts you want to attach to someone, it is smarter to share falsehoods in the form of questions rather than direct statements. The question works just as well to feed the lie, and it gives the liar deniability in the face of lawsuits. Notice how incautious Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell were in saying outright as fact that Dominion machines switched votes. Dominion is both lawyers. They should have just "asked questions" that implied corrupt behavior. Dominion would be just as damaged, but Giuliani and Powell would be in the clear.
I use the biblical words "false witness," because the Judeo-Christian tradition commands against defaming others. I watched Ted Cruz up close in New Hampshire and South Carolina. His political schtick mixes Texas cowboy boots, political conservatism, and God. He was the leading Christian nationalist candidate in the early months of the 2016 nomination campaign. Cruz was "trusTED." He had the Christian flame of the holy spirit, right there in his campaign logo.
Cruz was overtaken by a celebrity willing to take the fight to liberals, harder and nastier than Cruz, but with more humor. Pocahontas was funny. Cruz was serious. Trump had a better act. Trump understood that in the war for all-American culture, the ends justified the means. There are bad guys: The fake news, the liberals, the socialists, the haughty cosmopolitan elites, terrorist-sheltering Muslims, Blacks with their affirmative action privilege, the immigrants who get everything handed to them. Trump was unapologetic. He proudly asserted it was morally OK to crush losers and enemies. Audiences loved watching it. Voters loved watching it.
Ted Cruz learned from Trump. Voters in the current GOP activist base do not want Christian piety or sportsmanship. They don't mind exaggeration and lies. They reward strength. I participate in a longitudinal experiment to see what the Ted Cruz base likes and responds to. I am on his email list. He has written me about five days a week for five years with "red meat" and a request for money. He has had over a thousand trial runs to hone a message that delivers for him.
***Ted Cruz's base likes conspiracies. There are dark mysterious forces that threaten people.
***Ted Cruz's base responds to innuendo. The "just asking questions" technique seems to work.
***Ted Cruz's base wants to believe that January 6 riot was the fault of their enemies, not their own teammates.
Ray Epps is an Arizona resident, a Trump supporter, and a leader in the "Oath Keepers." He participated in speeches and rallies on January 5 and 6 near the Capitol. He is not a FBI informant nor employee and has said so adamantly. Ted Cruz knows this. He also knows Justice Department employees cannot comment on ongoing investigations so their refusal to answer was a given and not suspicious. Ray Epps is collateral damage used to feed a debunked conspiracy theory. The irony is that Epps' reputation is being besmirched because Cruz is implying that he works in law enforcement to protect the Constitution. He doesn't and never has. He is a volunteer Trump-activist attempting to stop a Constitutional process, i.e. a "good guy" within the check-writing GOP orbit. Cruz is defaming him.
Here is a portion of the email Ted Cruz sent me this week. It says something about Cruz. It says something about Cruz's audience. This is what works with them.From: Ted Cruz
From: Ted Cruz
Subject: Who is Ray Epps?
To: Peter Sage
This week I led the search for answers on whether there was any federal involvement in January 6.
I grilled a senior FBI official– and she REFUSED to answer key questions.
Who is Ray Epps? Was Ray Epps a federal agent or informant?
Did ANY FBI agents or confidential informants actively participate in the events that day?
We know the FBI has been misused in the past to target President Trump and our conservative movement and run interference for the Democrats.Just look at the Russia Collusion Hoax- James Comey and Peter Strzok...
…and now AG Merrick Garland won’t answer questions from Congress.
What are they trying to hide now about the events of January 6, 2021?I’m working hard to expose the full truth and shine a light on whether there was any FBI involvement on that day... and the liberal media can’t stand it! . . .
Democrats want to twist the events of January 6 to fit their completely dishonest narrative, with their pals in the liberal media all-in on the scam.