Ted Cruz said that he won’t humble himself before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to smooth over the rough relationship he has developed with colleagues.
“[Cruz] tells me he won’t go ‘on bended knee, with my hat in hand’ to Mitch McConnell to unify GOP against [Trump],” FOX News’s James Rosen tweeted Wednesday morning.
CNN published a report Tuesday quoting Sens. John Cornyn, John Thune and Orrin Hatch as saying that Cruz should work to repair his Senate ties, and that he has work to do to earn the goodwill of his cohorts.
Cruz has rankled his fellow senators with his behavior and procedural tactics, prominently during a funding battle over Obamacare in 2013. But his most pointed disagreement with McConnell came last summer, when Cruz all but called the majority leader a liar from the Senate floor. Such antagonism has created a wide rift between the Texas senator, who prides himself on his opposition to “the Washington cartel”, and Senate Republicans.
While Cruz might not have mended fences with the Senate GOP just yet, he lauded the man who was viewed as the party establishment’s standardbearer, Sen. Marco Rubio, Tuesday night.
“Marco’s story, his passion, inspires me. Marco can paint a picture, can weave a tapestry of the promise of America like no one else. And his presidential campaign inspired millions,” Cruz said. “To those who supported Marco, who worked so hard, we welcome you with open arms.”
