The embarrassing squabble between Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump over their wives is playing directly into the hands of the mainstream media, providing liberals with valuable ammunition to depict Trump as waging a “war on women” should he run in the general election.

The unfortunate bickering began when an independent group released a nude photo of Melania Trump in Utah with the caption, “Meet Melania Trump. Your next First Lady. Or, you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.”

Cruz, who had nothing to do with the vulgar ad, criticized it, saying the “ad was completely inappropriate.” But this wasn’t enough for Trump, who held Cruz responsible and threatened to “spill the beans” on Heidi in a bizarre tweet.

Things went from bad to worse when Trump then retweeted an offensive image comparing Heidi and Melania.

And Friday, Cruz was forced to deny a report in the National Enquirer that he has had several affairs. The story is based on a single anonymous source. Cruz says the Trump campaign is behind it.

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Christmas has come early for the media spin masters who proceeded promptly to blow the story out of proportion, setting the stages for a “Trump hates women” general election strategy.

“Republican presidential race devolves into sexist competition over whose wife is hotter,” proclaimed Think Progress. “Top two presidential candidates are abusing each other’s wives,” National Journal’s Ron Fournier falsely claimed. Trump’s tweet was “stupidly crude,” said Howard Fineman, Global Editorial Director of the Huffington Post, and Cruz’s response “brutally cynical.”

The liberal media loves to take any and every opportunity to describe Republicans as evil misogynists hellbent on chaining women to the kitchen wall and condemning them to a lifetime of nothing more than sandwich and baby-making. It’s their second-favorite play out of their trusty Identity Politics Playbook, next to depicting the GOP as Klansmen in suits.

If a fundamental rule of American politics is that the mainstream media will take every opportunity to make the GOP look sexist, Subsection A) of said rule is that Republicans will through gross stupidity hand those opportunities to the mainstream media on a silver platter.

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The media has been taking every opportunity to pin the misogynist tail on the Donald donkey since he announced his candidacy. Trump should have known better, given he has deflected charges of misogyny based on his multiple wives and history of affairs, the Megyn Kelly tiff during the first Fox debate, a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a former staffer, and then finally the now infamous incident in which Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski allegedly grabbed reporter Michelle Fields’s arm.

But Cruz only made matters worse. Cruz, who shone in the early debates for his ability to call out the media for its repeated attempts to catch the candidates in “gotcha!” moments, this time decided to help the media create one.

In response to Trump’s imprudent tweet, he called Trump a “sniveling coward” and to “leave Heidi the hell alone.” He also offered the media — and the Clinton campaign — a perfectly wrapped present of a soundbite when he said, “Real men don’t try to bully women” and suggested that perhaps Trump “is afraid of strong women.”

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But just as Trump should have known better than to do something liberals could criticize as sexist, Cruz should have known better than to criticize Trump using liberal talking points. Modern Republicans have a terrible habit of apologizing for the false narratives the left creates about them, and in his condemnation of Trump, Cruz falls for the same trap.

Cruz could have attacked Trump’s comments for their vulgarity or pettiness, but instead he attacked them for their alleged “sexism.” This is no different than Speaker Paul Ryan calling Trump’s stances on Muslim and illegal immigration “bigotry.”

Part of this is because the GOP is infested with liberals. Indeed Liz Mair, the woman and Republican strategist who runs the anti-Trump group which put out the Melania ad in Utah meant to sway voters towards Cruz, describes herself on her website as a “long-time gay rights supporter” who is not only “pro-gay-marriage” and “pro-choice” but “actually basically for amnesty.”

With Republicans like these, who needs enemies?