Ted Cruz: Boehner was indulging his ‘inner Trump’ when he called me ‘Lucifer in the flesh’

Ted Cruz responded to withering criticism Thursday from former House Speaker John Boehner, who called him a "miserable son of a bitch" and "Lucifer in the flesh."

The Texas senator described Boehner's remarks as "interesting," and suggested that the former GOP lawmaker was only trying to help his "texting buddy," Donald Trump.

"He actually didn't abbreviate what he said -- he was a little more expressive," Cruz said. "He allowed his inner Trump to come out."

The Republican presidential candidate attempted to tie Boehner, who is deeply unpopular with conservative voters, to the GOP frontrunner.

"If you want a president like John Boehner, Donald Trump's your man," Cruz said, with his newly anointed running mate, Carly Fiorina, standing by his side. "And by the way, Donald Trump gave John Boehner's super PAC $100,000 just a few years ago."

Cruz shrugged off the former House Speaker, who said he had "never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

"I've never worked with John Boehner," Cruz said. "The truth of the matter is, I don't know the man. I've met John Boehner two or three times in my life."

Cruz said he had reached out to Boehner during the government shutdown and asked to work with the House Speaker to defund the Affordable Care Act, but he said Boehner told him: "I have no interest in talking to you."

"What John Boehner is angry with is the American people holding him accountable," Cruz said. "That's what the anger is, because the corrupt system that Boehner and Hillary have been enmeshed with for years, funded by Donald Trump. Donald's writing checks to Boehner, Donald's writing checks to Hillary -- he's funding the corrupt system (that) is unaccountable to the people, and what made John Boehner mad was I led a movement of the people to hold him accountable."

Watch Cruz respond to Boehner's criticism in this video posted online by The Washington Post: