- Pritzker Fellows
- Former Fellows
- Amanda Carpenter
Amanda Carpenter
Author, CNN Contributor & former Senior Communications Adviser for Senator Ted Cruz
Biography
Amanda Carpenter is the author of Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies To Us and a CNN Contributor. Prior to joining CNN, she served as senior communications adviser and speechwriter to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Speechwriter to U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC). She has also worked as a credentialed reporter on Capitol Hill for the Washington Times and written for the Washington Post, Politico, Cosmo.com, and Refinery29.
Seminars
“Life in the Spin Zone”
“Can you believe what Donald Trump said?” CNN Contributor and former Communications Director to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) will draw on her experience working on Capitol Hill, campaigns, and in the media to discuss the complexities of navigating the truth in the Trump era. In this four-event series, Carpenter will examine the ways political operatives obfuscate the truth and how the media can effectively clear the clutter.
Since his inauguration, the Washington Post has calculated that President Trump has told more than 4,000 lies. But what moral quandaries do his allies face when defending him? In this discussion, Carpenter will dissect the strategies spokespersons use when their bosses are caught telling lies and how it can destroy their credibility, with a look back to how aides protected President Clinton through impeachment and President Nixon through Watergate.
“What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening,” President Trump told an audience of his supporters in July 2018. This stunning declaration defines his unprecedented approach to discrediting press and the disdain he has cultivated among his supporters for critical media coverage of his administration. Carpenter will lend her perspective as to what challenges reporters and commentators must make while withstanding his unrelenting attacks and explore the implications Trump’s war on the press has for future elections, as candidates choose whether to adopt his untoward attacks on the media or attempt to restore civility between themselves and those who cover their races.
What will the midterm results mean for the 2020 presidential election? How is President Trump changing the GOP? Will traditional conservatives have a voice going forward? A look to the future.