The MSM knows perfectly well that any candidate less than 100% conservative will get torn apart by conservatives themselves. Good luck finding the perfect candidate. They don’t exist.
While the Democrats elected Uncle Fester from the Addams Family in Pennsylvania. Say what you will about Oz but at least he is coherent and he looks good in a suit.
The ones that do exist tend to be faking it.
I have found the more perfect a conservative is, the more likely that he’s a plant unless he proves himself otherwise.