A spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, struggled Tuesday to explain why after months of praising GOP front-runner Donald Trump, the Texas lawmaker has decided now to accuse his primary rival of being unprincipled and too far to the left on certain issues.
Cruz’s campaign has upped its criticism of the billionaire businessman in recent weeks as the two continue to battle for supremacy in the 2016 GOP primary. The problem for some, however, is that Cruz’s criticism of Trump’s record on guns, abortion and gay marriage comes after months of high praise and laudatory remarks.
CNN’s John Berman noted Tuesday morning in an interview with campaign spokesman Rick Tyler that Trump’s record on the Second Amendment and gay marriage isn’t exactly new.
“On Donald Trump’s record, which you are now calling out, this is all his record before he jumped into the race,” the host noted.
And in that time, Berman added, Cruz has said of the casino tycoon: “I like Donald Trump,” “I think he’s terrific,” “I think he speaks the truth” and “[I’m] grateful he’s in the race.”
Cruz has also promised on several occasions that he will continue to sing Trump’s praises, and has vowed to criticize him only on the issues.
“What happened? Ted Cruz seemed to love Donald Trump?” Berman asked. “When you call Donald Trump inconsistent, all I’m trying to understand is how is it consistent that Ted Cruz seemed to like Donald Trump and be okay with [his known record] in August, September, October and November? But now not so?”
Tyler responded, saying, “well, he’s said — he still says he likes Donald Trump. Donald Trump is, you know, an entertaining guy. He’s, like, a reality TV star in reality. But he’s not a presidential candidate. He doesn’t act presidential. He doesn’t really know a lot the substantive issues and has intellectual or ideological core, which is why he can’t keep track of things he said in the past because he doesn’t actually know what he believes.”
“So, we’ll just continue to be entertained, but I don’t think this is the direction we want to go,” he added.
