A Divided Nation Unites to Mock Ted Cruz’s Groveling to Tucker Carlson: ‘One of the Most Pathetic Things I’ve Ever Seen’

Senator Ted Cruz appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight Thursday and something miraculous seems to have happened as a result: a divided nation united to call out just how cringe-worthy his shameless groveling to Tucker Carlson was.

The Texas Republican appeared on Fox News prime time the night after Carlson excoriated him for labeling those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 “terrorists.” Carlson accused Cruz of repeating the “talking points” that President Joe Biden’s attorney general had “written.”

Cruz knows that any Republican with a bright political future can ill afford to be on the wrong side of Tucker Carlson and his audience, so he appeared on his show with hat in hand, and oddly, things went downhill from there.

Carlson repeatedly interrupted Cruz in the way an unhappy junior high school kid might bully an insecure classmate who gets immediately flustered by the attack. “I don’t buy that,” and “I do not believe you,” and “what you just said doesn’t make sense,” were all phrases Carlson used to hector his guest. It was not for the faint of heart.

Cruz inevitably backtracked, saying he agreed with his Fox News host that it was a sloppy mistake to use the word “terrorist” this week, despite the fact that he had previously released the following statement on January 7th, 2021 (which is still available on his official website):

The attack at the Capitol was a despicable act of terrorism and a shocking assault on our democratic system. We must come together and put this anger and division behind us. We must, and I am confident we will, have a peaceful and orderly transition of power.

So Ted Cruz not only revealed himself to be spineless on Thursday night, but also paraded his apparent duplicity. Oof.

After the segment aired, Cruz tweeted the full video, adding “Yesterday, I used a dumb choice of words and unfortunately a lot of people are misunderstanding what I meant,” before adding clarification on what he meant by calling those who terrorized the Capitol “terrorists.” This is, oddly, where things went from bad to worse.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) summed it up best by tweeting the video with: “that is one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen.”

And of course, there were plenty of left-of-center blue checks that piled on. But perhaps more interesting were the conservatives who laced into Senator Cruz.

Take for example comedian Christopher Titus (known for skewering both sides of the aisle) who used colorful language to blast Cruz for playing both sides:

Then there was “conservative thought leader“Adam Baldwin who appeared to snitch on Cruz, tagging Tucker Carlson noting that the statement calling the attackers “terrorists” was still up:

And then there were the usual suspects, a sample of their mockery are published here for your enlightened edification:

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com