Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is known for being unpopular with fellow senators. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., famously cracked that if Cruz was killed and the trial was held in the Senate, his colleagues wouldn’t vote to convict. But on Wednesday, one senator may very well have called Cruz “my best friend.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, was being asked by NewsMax TV why he hadn’t endorsed presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump yet. Lee cut off host Steve Malzberg with a mini rant.
“We can get into that if you want. We can get into the fact that he accused my best friend’s father of conspiring to kill JFK.
“We can go through the fact that uh he’s made some statements that some have identified correctly as religiously intolerant.
“We can get into the fact that he’s wildly unpopular in my state in part because my state consists of people who are members of a religious minority church — a people who were ordered exterminated by the governor of Missouri in 1838 – and statements like that make them nervous.
“Now look, these things are not something that I couldn’t get over if I heard the right things out of him. But if you want to know why it is I have concerns, I can go on if you like,” Lee said.
The “religious minority church” Lee was referring to was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormons, who make up a majority of Utahans.
And it would be very hard to see the “best friend” remark as referring to anyone other than Cruz.
On the campaign trail in May, Trump touted a non-sourced National Enquirer story. It alleged that father Rafael Cruz had been pictured with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before he assassinated President John F. Kennedy, an allegation the Cruz campaign called “another garbage story in a tabloid full of garbage.”
Lee and Cruz had been somewhat close politically for a few years, both having been elected with heavy Tea Party support. Lee became the first senator to endorse Cruz in March. But the BFF status announcement was something new and unexpected.
