CNN anchor Anderson Cooper on Friday night tore into Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for begging for mercy on Tucker Carlson's Fox News program and disavowing his comments calling the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection a "violent terrorist attack."
"Backed into a corner," Cooper said of Cruz, adding that Carlson was "giving that quizzical look he practices so hard."
"And then, (Cruz) had to — he did the twist, hoping that by blaming the media, blaming Democrats, Carlson would get back on his side. Didn't work," Cooper said.
He noted that according to his CNN colleague Daniel Dale, Cruz called the Capitol insurrection a "terrorist attack" at least 17 previous times in official written statements, tweets, and remarks at Senate hearings and in interviews.
"But the issue isn't his hypocrisy, really, only his abject subordination of himself," Cooper said. "A sitting U.S. senator, one of only 100, someone with actual influence — a former presidential candidate, nonetheless — groveling at the feet of Tucker Carlson. Which is quite a comedown after groveling at the feet of the president."
"Remember when candidate Trump insulted his wife's looks?" Cooper added, playing a clip of Cruz furiously attacking Trump as a "coward."
"The former president also insinuated Cruz's father was involved in President Kennedy's assassination, among other false claims and insults," Cooper said. "And remember recently he said running for president and losing was like the greatest experience of his life, the most fun he had in years? Don't think it's that fond for his wife. Cruz stood firm, then crumbled. A year ago, he was leading the effort to overturn the election on January 6th. By last February, he was fully supine."
"So yeah, Ted Cruz has the spine of a cantaloupe," Cooper concluded. "Now, remember the time that he blamed his daughters as the reason he was quickly trying to get on a plane to Mexico for vacation during the state's power crisis? Yeah. Wasn't the case."
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Anderson Cooper says Ted Cruz has "the spine of a cantaloupe" www.youtube.com
