John Kasich and Marco Rubio have both taken softer tones in recent weeks. Ted Cruz is apparently trying to do the same.
During Wednesday night’s CNN Republican Town Hall, Cruz was asked about his relationship with his colleagues. “From time to time, we see articles written in the paper or on television that you don’t get along with some of the Republican senators—your colleagues in Washington. If you are going to have a problem with them, what are you going to say to them as president to get them on board so that we can get legislation passed?”
In his answer, Cruz explained, “it’s not that I speak with a lack of civility or respect, I mean you have seen in the presidential campaign as other people insult me, impugn my integrity, I don’t respond in kind. The Bible talks about if someone treats you unkindly, repay them with kindness. It’s like heaping coals on the top of their head. That has been the standard I have tried to follow, that’s how I have approached it in the Senate. So, I have not attacked or insulted my colleagues in the senate, Democrat or Republican. even if I disagree with them on the issues.”
Cruz went on to say that people say he’s unlikeable because he honors “the commitments that I made to the women and men who elected me.”
However, Cruz has not only attacked his colleagues, but his attacks have helped him gain support of those disenchanted with the Republican establishment.
Last July, Cruz called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar. “What we just saw today was an absolute demonstration that not only what he told every Republican senator, but what he told the press over and over and over again, was a simple lie.” In October, he also called McConnell, “the most effective Democratic leader in modern times.”
His attacks on his colleagues have helped build his image as an insurgent who stands up to Washington—a status of which he is proud.
It also doesn’t help that, early Thursday, people noticed that a picture used on a Cruz website of President Obama shaking hands with Marco Rubio was photoshopped. Cruz’s communications director reportedly denied the accusation, saying, “I am confident that our campaign would not use a photo that is not authentic.”
However, the side-by-side view of the picture used on Cruz’s site with what is possibly the original picture tells a different story.
Side by side: pic.twitter.com/mBNj1I5gI2
— Jimmy (@JimmyPrinceton) February 18, 2016
