After Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz appeared on Fox News and made a crass joke about Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's recent trip to Mar-a-Lago, he was instantly called out for his hypocrisy on social media.
Cruz's comments followed the revelation by Scarborough and Brzezinski—two of the most outspoken cable news critics of President-elect Donald Trump during the 2024 election campaign—that they had met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate for clear-the-air discussions. The meeting marked their first face-to-face interaction in seven years.
Speaking on Fox News personality Sean Hannity's program, Cruz mocked the Morning Joe hosts for reconnecting with Trump, issuing the following crass remark after Hannity said Scarborough and Brzezinski had "kissed the ring" and "decided to suck up" to Trump:
“I’m not even sure they were kissing the ring. I think they were kissing a little bit lower than that. They’re desperate for relevance."
You can hear what Cruz said in the video below.
Cruz made these comments with no sense of irony.
Cruz lost the Republican nomination to then-candidate Trump in 2016 then faced significant criticism for his often deferential attitude toward Trump during his presidency.
There is a contentious history between the two. Trump openly mocked Cruz's wife, Heidi Cruz, by comparing her looks to those of his wife Melania, a former model. Trump also once suggested that Cruz's father may have been involved in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, claiming that Cruz's father was with Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald "prior to Oswald being, you know, shot."
Despite that, Cruz, who once referred to Trump as a "pathological liar," has gone in all in for Trump, including continuing to downplay the severity of the January 6 insurrection, when a mob of Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol resulting in at least five deaths, injuries to over 100 members of law enforcement and millions of dollars in damages.
He was swiftly called out for his hypocrisy.
Last month, Brzezinski explained that they decided to contact Trump’s team to explore “the opportunity to speak with the president-elect” after feeling disheartened by his Cabinet selections.
While she and Scarborough acknowledged disagreeing with Trump on numerous issues, including mass shootings and abortion, during their conversation, they did find common ground on a shared willingness "to restart communications.”
Scarborough emphasized that he and Brzezinski would not "defend or normalize" Trump and remained committed to holding him accountable.
