Joe Scarborough Blasts Ted Cruz’s ‘Shameless’ Defense Of Donald Trump
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz recently suggested on NBC’s Meet the Press that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, supporting a theory that Donald Trump and his allies have been pushing amid the impeachment probe into the president. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday, host Joe Scarborough slammed Cruz’s “shameless” defense of Trump while speaking with Republican strategist Susan Del Percio, Newsweek reports.
“How shameless they can be in defense of a man who not only would never defend them, but a man [Trump] who viciously attacked [Cruz’s] wife, viciously attacked his father and viciously accused him of having an affair with five different women,” Scarborough said.
Del Percio claims that Cruz’s behavior is “even worse” than simply “trying to go low” to protect the president.
“The Republicans, and especially when you see someone like Ted Cruz going on the air, he is actually hurting our democracy. He is basically saying: You cannot trust our military.”
Cruz’s claim on Meet the Press that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election came not long after Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy supported the theory on the same program. In addition, Texas Sen. John Cornyn — also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee — said that Ukraine was “cheerleading” for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Conversely, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham broke with his GOP allies and said that he has “no doubt” that Russia stole the Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails and that Ukraine had “zero” involvement in the scandal.
WATCH: @SenTedCruz says he believes Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. #MTP #IfItsSunday pic.twitter.com/OPAxpe6T6t
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) December 8, 2019
Per Mediaite, Scarborough said Monday that members of the GOP are pushing “Russian propaganda” that is approved by Vladimir Putin, who the Morning Joe host calls the “source himself.” Scarborough noted that the intelligence community has warned against spreading theories — as politicians like Cruz are accused of doing — that purportedly play into the hands of Putin, an ex-KGB agent whose goal is allegedly to push focus onto Ukraine instead of Russia.
Scarborough noted that the intelligence community told senators that Russian propaganda is a “lie” while noting that Putin has continued to push Ukraine-related narratives “over the past couple of years.” According to Scarborough, Cruz, Kennedy, and others have nevertheless continued to spread theories that contain narratives beneficial to Russia.
Scarborough previously clashed with Cruz over gun control, Mediaite reported. In particular, the pair clashed over the lethality of AR-15 guns and the debate continued to escalate when they moved onto the topic of Supreme Court rulings on the Second Amendment, including the Heller Supreme Court ruling in 2008.
