Ted Cruz Blasts Former McCain Adviser Steve Schmidt: A ‘Cretin’ Who ‘Spent His Life’ Betraying Powerful Men

Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Tuesday shredded former Republican consultant Steve Schmidt for attacking his colleague, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), as someone who would have sympathized with Cuba’s Communist regime.

“Rubio is the type of man who would have stayed in Cuba in ’59,” Schmidt wrote on Twitter shortly after midnight Tuesday. “He is the type of ambitious young man who would have sensed new opportunities. He is the type of man who would have gladly held Castro’s coat if it helped him rise, just a little.”

Cruz replied on Tuesday: “Marco & I haven’t always agreed, but to see him slandered by this oleaginous cretin is shameful. Schmidt wouldn’t understand — he’s spent his life serving, & then betraying, powerful men — but for those whose families suffered & bled under Castro’s tyranny, this is beyond the pale.”

Marco & I haven’t always agreed, but to see him slandered by this oleaginous cretin is shameful. Schmidt wouldn’t understand—he’s spent his life serving, & then betraying, powerful men—but for those whose families suffered & bled under Castro’s tyrannny, this is beyond the pale. https://t.co/PxKnvU6MUw

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 18, 2020

It’s a hard truth to face. You are a timid and frightened man. You have the spirit of a collaborator. You have turned your back on all that you once claimed to have believed . You have stood silently by as Trump has wrecked the country with his incompetence and malice. https://t.co/L2RCg2gTc0

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) August 18, 2020

Schmidt, a political analyst for MSNBC, previously served as an adviser to Republicans including the late Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. McCain selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate that year, partially at Schmidt’s behest. He later said the idea of Palin becoming president “frightens me,” but said he went along with it because he was “fueled by ambition to win.” He is supporting former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and had been writing critically of Rubio — whose parents fled Cuba before the rise of the late dictator Fidel Castro’s regime — for ridiculing “actors and celebrities” affiliated with the Democratic Party.

“Your parents came in ’56,” he added in his message to Rubio. “They weren’t fleeing communism. They were just looking for a better life like the hard working immigrants you have abandoned because you fear Trump and love your position. We are living in a moment where our institutions are under assault and Trump is attacking our 231 year old tradition of free and fair elections. At long last we know the type of man Marco Rubio is. He is no friend of liberty. He is an apparatchik at heart. A self-interested enabler and a collaborator with the indecency he once denounced.”

Rubio responded in a subsequent message. “Schmidt is the type of man who turns to political prostitution,” Rubio wrote. The type of washed up man who sensed new opportunities to make some $. The type of man who gladly supports a party with prominent members who sympathize with Castro because it helps him be relevant, just a little.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!