Ted Cruz's About Face, Praising Trump
BALDWIN: A tribute to President Trump in "Time" magazine's 100 most influential people of 2018 is raising some eyebrows because of the man who wrote it, Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz penned a glowing review of the president, despite the jabs the two exchanged in the 2016 campaign. It was Trump who called Cruz a liar, not so subtly suggested Cruz's wife was much less attractive than the president's and floated the possibility that Cruz's father might have had a role in the assassination of JFK. Still, Cruz praises Trump in "Time" magazine writing, "While pundits obsessed over tweets, he worked with Congress to cut taxes for struggling families while wealthy celebrities announced they would flee the country, he fought to bring back jobs and industries to our shores. President Trump's strong stand against North Korea put Kim Jong-Un back on his heels." A much different tone than this.</s>SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), FLORIDA: Donald is a bully. This man is a pathological liar. The man cannot tell the truth, but he combines it with being a narcissist. A narcissist at a level I don't think this country's ever seen. The man is utterly amoral. And Donald Trump is a serial philanderer. Donald had no substance behind him. Real men don't try to bully women. It's an action of a small and petty man. I don't make a habit out of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my family. It is not acceptable for a big, loud New York bully to attack my wife. Donald, you're a sniveling coward. And leave Heidi the hell alone.</s>BALDWIN: Whoo! Back with me, Jason Miller and Rick Wilson. Jason -- Rick, let me come to you first. Because, I mean, we point out politicians, hypocrites. How is this not a hypocritical with a capital "H?"</s>WILSON: You have the two versions of, at the time, Cruz that I'm going to call you out and now you've got the would you like a latte and foot massage, Mr. Trump? How do you wake up every day and say to your wife, hey, it's cool by the way that I'm now kissing the ass of this guy who called you hideous? And how do you say to your dad I know he said you killed JFK? But we're cool, right? Somebody once called Ted Cruz a dumbest smart guy in the world. Does he think he's going to get something out of Donald Trump or out of Donald Trump's supporters by playing this game? It's baffling to me. But then again, Ted Cruz is kind of a baffling dude.</s>BALDWIN: Jason, you -- we should point out you served as an adviser to the Cruz campaign as well as the Trump presidential campaign. Can you defend Ted Cruz at all?</s>MILLER: Absolutely. I think it shows ted is playing this pretty smart. The Republican Party very much is the party of Donald Trump now. Ted Cruz is up for reelection, I think he has a very bright future in politics ahead of him --</s>BALDWIN: So this is totally political?</s>MILLER: No, but it's also, too -- President Trump has been very good to Ted Cruz ever since he's gotten in the office. Ted has had a front row seat when it comes to working on Hurricane Harvey release, NASA reauthorization, tax cuts. The two work together very well. Stylistically, they're completely different, but I think they have a lot of the same vision of what they want to go and do here. I think also, too, for Ted to step up and do this, it shows it's a two-way street and we can work together on these things. I give Ted credit for doing this.</s>BALDWIN: How then -- help people, Jason, who are watching who is never been in politics and let's rip the band-aid off and say Ted Cruz wants to be president whether it's '20, '24, he needs Trump's voters and base. How do you get past the fact that Trump criticized his wife, accused of father of being part of the JFK nation? How does this, poof, go away?</s>MILLER: Well, he's a pretty big man. I think he can look past --</s>BALDWIN: He was pretty irked during the campaign.</s>MILLER: He was irked. If we were talking about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, if they this a knockdown, drag-out fight and one came out and supported the other one --</s>BALDWIN: We'd be having the same conversation.</s>MILLER: No. We'd be saying these people are so genius.</s>BALDWIN: We'd be having the same conversation.</s>MILLER: You would say these people are so genius. I've never seen geniuses like this. But the fact we had a very competitive primary. Donald Trump kicked our ass. I was working for Ted Cruz and the party rallied and we beat Secretary Clinton. That's the way it's supposed to work. You come together in the general election. The primary was completely different from anything we've seen in American history before. I'm proud of Ted for going and doing this. I have to give the president a little credit. You look around his cabinet and the people he has, Mike Pompeo or Nikki Haley or other people, the president has brought in a lot of people who maybe even worked for other people in the primary. I think that SOS the president --</s>BALDWIN: He's gotten rid of some people along the way.</s>MILLER: Yes, but he's brought in people. That shows a maturity on President Trump's end as the leader as well. We'll be united here. I'm glad to see both of them getting long.</s>BALDWIN: Rick, this is your party, too.</s>WILSON: The question that voters -- we see this in focus groups over and over and over again, they hate inauthentic people. They hate people that say one thing and do another, hate people whose views are locked in stone on one thing and turn around and do the opposite. With Cruz, it hurts him in the long run. It relates to how he treats his wife and family and, for political purposes, he's willing to go, it was nothing, no big deal. Can I shine those other shoes for you, President Trump?</s>BALDWIN: Welcome to politics.</s>BALDWIN: Who needs a back bone when you just need to win.</s>WILSON: It tends to be.</s>BALDWIN: I'm just saying. Rick Wilson, Jason Miller, thank you guys so very much.</s>MILLER: Thanks, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Just ahead here, a small Florida sheriff's office reeling today after it would have their own were killed at a local restaurant. What investigators are revealing about the deadly ambush. We are live in Florida next.