ST. LOUIS — There was a popular type of tweet on Friday evening as Republicans recoiled and Democrats danced at the latest Trump controversy. It was about Ted Cruz: If only he had waited two weeks, he would have had the moral authority and indisputable backbone to explain that he opposed Trump for this exact reason and offer a way forward for the GOP.

That didn’t happen.

None of this was ever a problem for Ana Navarro, CNN’s Republican political commentator, who has taken aim at Trump from day one. As many on the Republican side are having a worse and worse cycle as the election wears on — and wears on Americans — Navarro is getting more attention and more plaudits.

She can turn a phrase ("The chupacabra is more popular with Hispanic voters than Donald Trump is," she has said on air). But what separates Navarro as Republicans now huddle, privately stew, denounce, and try to figure out how to put back together the mess in front of them, is the emotion — the disgust — she shows on air.

Navarro told BuzzFeed News people are used to seeing scripted, robotic partisan surrogates on TV, all spewing the same talking points and "trying to defend crazy shit that cannot be defended."

"This election, while absolutely horrific for me in so many ways, has also been strangely liberating," she said. "I am not supporting any candidate and I am not under the thumb of any campaign or party. I don't get the daily guidance or called to task if I don't defend something or other. I am unplugged, unchained, and unmuzzled."



Her latest viral turn came on the heels of a 2005 video that showed Trump crudely talking about women, including language that suggests he forced himself on women to kiss them. “I don't even wait,” Trump gloated, before adding he can just “grab them by the pussy.”

On air, Navarro was apoplectic, her voice rising, as she repeatedly used the word “pussy” to drive the point home, and undoubtedly get the undivided attention of viewers who might have the TV on in the background.

“Will you please stop saying that word? My daughter is listening," said Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes.

Navarro lost it.

"Don't tell me you're offended when I say 'pussy,' but you're not offended when Donald Trump says it. I'm not running for president, he is," Navarro shot back.

It was great TV. And the clip shot around Twitter just a couple minutes after the exchange. CNN anchor Don Lemon said he was going to commercial and when they returned, Navarro was gone. Lemon said she had to leave and Navarro explained on Twitter that she had been on air seven hours and was tired.

But Navarro isn’t new to the game, she’s just playing it better than almost any other Republican or commentator.

A longtime Republican strategist, her friendship with Jeb Bush was the source of tension within his shortlived campaign because she was seen by the media as speaking for the campaign.

But from the day Trump infamously hit Mexicans and immigrants, Navarro was there to fight him. She hit her stride when she slammed him with utter indignation over his attacks on Gonzalo Curiel, the Mexican-American judge from Indiana ruling on the Trump University case, who Trump said could not do his job because he was “Mexican.”