‘Ted Cruz Needs to Buy a Mirror or Two’: Matthew Dowd Calls Out Hypocrisy of Texas Senator’s ‘Don’t Be A**sholes’ Proclamation

Matthew Dowd called out “unshameable” Sen. Ted Cruz for hypocrisy after the Texas Republican urged his critics to tone down their political rhetoric.

During a Tuesday night appearance on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront, the former GOP political strategist weighed in on the senator’s attempt to deflect the tidal wave of outrage over his ducking out for an ostensible Cancun vacation amid massive blackouts in his home state. Earlier in the day, Cruz had lamented that the outpouring of criticism targeting him — some of it quite nasty — and offered up a pithy philosophical prescription in response: “Here’s a suggestion: Just don’t be assholes. Like, just, you know, treat each other as human beings have some degree, some modicum of respect.”

“Matthew Dowd, what do you say to Ted Cruz, who says to the people who outed him for trying to act like he was dropping his kids off, or whatever he was trying to spin there. ‘Don’t be A-holes?’ Burnett said, teeing up the conversation.

“Well, I would say to Ted, I agree with him that we all ought to treat each other better and be more civil. But he ought to have a modicum of self-respect in this,” Dowd said. “When he lectures people about on… behaving better, it’s like Ty Cobb lecturing people on sportsmanship, or Bernie Madoff lecturing people on investment fraud.”

“But Ted Cruz isn’t focused on the problem,” Dowd continued. “He needs to buy a mirror or two and look at the real problem. Ted Cruz, take responsibility for your actions, take accountability, and don’t start lecturing people. He basically became an Internet troll. And don’t lecture people on things you do every day of the week.”

In the past, Cruz has slammed his former Harvard Law School professor as a “rich, bitter, angry Leftist,” claimed the media was “rooting for this pandemic to be worse and worse,” and recently got into a heated Twitter fight with Seth Rogen.

“It is so amazing,” Burnett responded. “Anybody looks at that, ‘Don’t be A-holes,’ and even his allies had to look at that and say, are you kidding me?”

“As I’ve told you before, I know Ted, I worked with him in 2000. He’s unshamable. He cannot be shamed, because Ted has no self-awareness and he doesn’t really care,” Down added. “Ted is one of the first guys that called Donald Trump during the primaries a pathological liar, and actually had tried to make plans during the Republican convention of trying to have a floor vote, then all of a sudden after Donald Trump attacks his wife, attacks his father, became his best friend and biggest defender.”

“So there’s not a lot you can say about Ted that surprises me anymore,” Dowd concluded. “But I wish he would have a modicum of self-respect, and at least encounter some level of self-responsibility.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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