Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter on Sunday to slam MSNBC anchor Brian Williams after the journalist dubbed the Texas Republican “Kremlin Cruz” during a news segment on his weeknight show on MSNBC.
The new nickname came after Cruz shared a video suggesting that the Russian military is superior to the US military. The senator criticized a video put out by the Pentagon telling the story of a female recruit who marched for marriage equality before joining the armed forces. In his comments, Cruz called the video “woke” and “emasculating” to the U.S. military and shared his comment along with a Russian propaganda video depicting members of its military as strong and masculine.
Brian Williams called the tweet a “remarkably stupid lapse of judgment” and displayed the nickname “Kremlin Cruz” on an on-air graphic below him as he spoke during the segment last week.
“Remember as you watch this just how much Ted Cruz dreams of being president of a country someday, perhaps not this country for reasons like this,” Williams said.
Cruz responded with a barrage of ranting tweets:
“Is there a more pitiful example of corrupt corporate media than Brian Williams?” Cruz asked. “Now, he’s throwing a hissy fit that I criticized the ridiculously woke video that the Biden admin put out. Williams accidentally told the truth, when he describes it as ‘a video meant to diminish the U.S. military.’ TRUE. That’s the problem. (The Pentagon put it out.).”
The Texas senator also rejected the nickname Williams gave him, saying, “I hate communists, my family was imprisoned & tortured by communists, and Brian is a shameless apologist for Russian (and Chinese and Cuban) communists.”
Cruz said he was instead arguing “that our military needs to be able to kick the ass of Russian soldiers.”
“It’s Brian & his lefty comrades that are working relentlessly to diminish the effectiveness of the U.S. military—the finest fighting force on the face of the planet,” he added.
Williams, who stopped hosting “NBC Nightly News” after being suspended for misrepresenting himself, now anchors a large portion of MSNBC’s election night and major political event coverage. Cruz, who won reelection to the Senate in 2018, regularly spars with progressives and political enemies on Twitter and is widely expected to consider a run for president in 2024.
1/x Is there a more pitiful example of corrupt corporate media than Brian Williams?
He was fired as the anchor of NBC Nightly News for "misrepresenting events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003.” Now, he’s a left-wing hack at MSNBC. https://t.co/0lGt3noUbQ
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 22, 2021
4/x (2) I was arguing that our military needs to be able to kick the ass of Russian soldiers. It’s Brian & his lefty comrades that are working relentlessly to diminish the effectiveness of the U.S. military—the finest fighting force on the face of the planet.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 22, 2021
