One might say that if Covid had a face and personality, it would be Ted Cruz. People spend a great deal of time wondering just what’s wrong with the Texas Senator and how anyone could vote for him, even Texans. It’s a tempting project because there’s just so much infinitely wrong with the guy. His level of awful had to have started after then-presidential candidate Donald Trump insulted his wife and Ted did not only do anything, but he campaigned for Trump and did his bidding for four years. One might even say that Cruz has followed in Donald Trump’s slime trail and become a full-time internet troll. It’s not like the senator has another, more pressing job.
And while Ted Cruz loves to think of himself as being this salt-of-the-earth, gun-toting conservative, he’s actually a feckless member of the elite. For example, he graduated from Princeton University and his wife is with Goldman Sachs. But cosplaying as a red-neck tough guy is pretty much all you have to do to win favor with the bottom feeders in today’s Republican party. It was close but Texans somehow re-elected Cruz when they could have traded him in for Beto O’Rourke. O’ Rourke, of course, is now running to unseat another terrible person in Governor Abbott.
Cruz is now notorious for leaving his Texas constituents for death in an unusual deep freeze in 2021 while he jetted off to the warm temps of Cancun. Indeed, that is an A-hole move worthy of getting tar and feathered. But again, the GOP has super-duper low standards and the entire party’s agenda is simply “owning the libs.” So given the absolute monstrosity that is Ted Cruz, we at Mandatory decided to find six times where he was actually worse than Covid.
Cover Photo: Justin Sullivan / Staff (Getty Images)
Ted Cruz Covid
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6. Blocked a Senate Resolution Honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg
One of the unspoken rules of American politics is that you don't have to agree with an opposing leader's politics to honor their memory after they die. Since no one in Congress wants to speak with Cruz, he's more likely to break the rule because no one told him about it. Then again, if someone did, that probably wouldn't stop him. And, well, that's precisely what he did.
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5. Read 'Green Eggs and Ham' to Filibuster the Affordable Care Act
Cruz shut down the government in 2013 in order to prevent the funding for the Affordable Care Act because he thought you might as well go all-in if you're gonna argue to the highest court in the land that a state shouldn't have to treat poor, sick children.
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4. Mocked Joe Biden the Night Before His Son's Funeral
Making fun of your political rivals is a time-honored tradition. but timing is always the key, especially if you're an actual human being. Cruz is the exception. Then-Vice-President Joe Biden lost his oldest son Beau in 2015 to cancer. Cruz waited until the eve of Beau's funeral to toss a joke about how Biden's name is just a punchline, which really isn't a joke if you have to explain that it's a joke, but that's beside the point.
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3. Groveled to Tucker Carlson Over Jan. 6 ‘Terrorist Attack’ Remark
If you tried to script an interview that epitomized the GOP’s post-Jan. 6 evolution, its subjugation to its more extreme elements and its rewriting of its own narrative of the Capitol riot, you would do no better than Tucker's interview with equally awful human Tucker Carlson.
After getting flak from the MAGA loons for calling the Jan 6 insurrection a "terrorist act," Cruz re-discovered his lack of spine and went on Fox News to grovel to Tucker Carlson.
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2. Ignored Reporters on Important Gun Questions, Spoke at NRA After Massive School Shooting in Own State
Ted Cruz outdid himself when instead of actually showing a modicum of backbone in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre, he instead continued simping for the NRA and ran away from a reporter. Worse yet, Cruz refused to cancel his appearance at the NRA convention this past weekend because he is actual slime.
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1. Snuck Off to Cancun While Texans Froze
Ah yes, who could forget the moment where old Teddy proved he is undoubtedly the absolute worst human being when he left his constituents for dead and snuck off to Cancun following an major Texas ice storm. Worse yet, he actually blamed the vacation on his kid. Yes, Ted Cruz is worse than Covid.
