Speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Saturday Sen. Ted Cruz said his Republican peers are hesitant to criticize former President Donald Trump because if they do, Trump “turns around and punches them in the face.”
Cruz made the comments at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Saturday while speaking to The Washington Examiner’s David Drucker.
“Why are people reluctant on the Republican side to criticize Donald Trump? It’s a number of things. Unlike many people in politics, if someone criticizes him, he turns around and punches them in the face,” Cruz told The Washington Examiner’s David Drucker.
Cruz said he witnessed meetings in which “different Republican senators would criticize” Trump, who would then “spend the whole meeting just slamming them with a stick.”
“I disagree with a lot of the things Donald Trump says. And I made a decision that I wasn’t going to be giving color commentary on MSNBC for every tweet or every statement that was obviously indefensible,” Cruz said.
He added: “I think that’s the right balance, and I’ll tell you for any Republican, that was a complicated decision: How do you deal with Trump?” Cruz added. “When he does things that are good and praise-worthy, I will praise him, and when he says things I disagree with, I’m just not going to engage in the day-to-day color commentary.”
In short, Cruz inadvertently revealed that he is afraid of the man who made several disparaging comments about him and his family during the 2016 election.
Watch the video below:
.@tedcruz: "Why are people reluctant on the Republican side to criticize Donald Trump? It's a number of things. … Unlike many people in politics, if someone criticizes him he turns around and punches them in the face." #TribFest22 pic.twitter.com/Gi5H9Bu2g0
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 24, 2022
