Republican Chris McDaniel sought Monday to gain traction in a special election for Senate in Mississippi by firing a top political adviser because he has been sharply critical of President Trump.

But Rick Tyler, the Republican political operative let go by the McDaniel campaign, was a known Trump critic when McDaniel hired him. Tyler, who served as a spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz during the Texas Republican’s 2016 presidential bid, has regularly criticized the president since joining MSNBC as a political commentator in February of that year, after being let go by the Cruz campaign.