Steve Schmidt Excoriates ‘Historically Despicable’ Ted Cruz: ‘He Ranks Right Up There With Joe McCarthy’

Former Republican Steve Schmidt ripped Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Monday after the senator spouted nonsense about voter fraud on Face the Nation the day before.

In a tense exchange with Margaret Brennan, Cruz stated, “We right now have a substantial chunk of our country that has real doubts about the integrity of the election.” Cruz, of course, did not mention the main reason some have “real doubts,” and that is Donald Trump’s ceaseless lies about the 2020 election being stolen from him.

“And if we had had a credible electoral commission do an emergency audit, it would have enhanced faith in democracy,” he said.

“Senator,” Brennan said, “there is no evidence of fraud that would have really drawn the outcome of the election into doubt. You know that.”

MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace asked Schmidt why Cruz is still talking about election fraud.

“‘There were allegations of election fraud,’ No, there went. I mean, Bill Barr, was the attorney general for Christ’s sake,” said Wallace, alluding to Barr’s conclusion that no widespread voter fraud took place.

“So why is this person, Ted Cruz, still on TV saying that?” she asked Schmidt.

“Well this is a historically despicable person, Nicolle,” he responded. “He ranks right up there with Joe McCarthy. He’s a demagogue. He’s a liar. He is as irresponsible a United States senator as there has ever been in the history of the United States. He arrived in the Senate and has been a vandal towards our institutions and towards the idea of the truth and delivering it to the American people.”

Schmidt said Cruz was talking “all nonsense” and declared, “When you look at somebody like Ted Cruz, you know he’s lying. Everybody knows he’s lying. Ted Cruz knows he’s lying. But extraordinary cynicism coupled with the type of propaganda that comes out of Fox News and the right wing can turn that nonsense into reality.”

Schmidt accused Cruz of helping incite the January 6th insurrection with lies about the election.

“He is a truly despicable figure at a moment of real crisis,” said Schmidt. “History will judge him very, very harshly should American democracy prevail in the years of fight that lie ahead between this extremist movement that is gaining strength, not decreasing in strength.”

Watch above via MSNBC.