National Review writer pummels 'coward' Ted Cruz for 'debasing' himself in front of Tucker Carlson

Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) groveling apology to Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Thursday drew the ire of conservative National Review writer Charles Cooke, who labeled the Texas senator a "coward" for refusing to stand up for himself.

At issue was Cruz's statement that the January 6th Capitol rioters committed an act of "terrorism," which Carlson angrily objected to on his show.

Cooke delivered an unsparing assessment of Cruz's decision to apologize meekly on Carlson's show.

"Cruz is transparent in his cowardice," he writes. "This wasn’t Ted Cruz carefully debating the meaning and suitability of words and making a handful of concessions in the process; this was Ted Cruz noticing that his previous position had made him unpopular with his base and finding another one on the fly."

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Cooke then rehashed some of Cruz's past attempts at clever political machinations that have blown up in his face, including his decision to capitulate and endorse former President Donald Trump even after Trump called his wife ugly and insinuated that Cruz's father murdered a former American president.

He then turned back to Cruz's performance on Carlson and gave him mocking advice on how he should have handled it.

"Groveling before Tucker Carlson, he said that he’d misspoken," writes Cooke. "But there was not a single person in America — including Carlson, who laughed derisively — who believed him. Given his objectives, Cruz would have been better off had he simply said, 'Look, Tucker, I still want to be president, and your taking shots at me is hurting me, so tell me what I need to say to make you stop, I’ll agree to say it, and then we can all move on.'"

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