The public ridicule of Sen. Ted Cruz‘s widely viewed Thursday night appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight continued on Don Lemon‘s CNN show on Friday.
Democratic political commentator Bakari Sellers told Lemon he felt sorry for Cruz while watching Tucker Carlson belittle the GOP senator in front of millions for describing Jan. 6 as the “anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol” earlier this week.
“Ted Cruz got bullied on national TV and I actually felt bad for him,” Sellers told Lemon regarding Cruz on Friday. “It was like an anti-bullying campaign. That could have been the commercial.”
Cruz made his “terrorist attack” remark about Jan. 6 rioters during a Wednesday Senate committee hearing concerning the oversight of police at the Capitol Building just over a year ago.
Carlson blasted Cruz for the comment during a Wednesday night segment on his show and refused to let the Texas senator slide the next night when Cruz tried to walk back his condemnation of would-be insurrectionists.
“The way I phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy and it was frankly dumb,” Cruz told Carlson on Thursday.
“I don’t buy that,” Carlson interrupted. “I’ve known you a long time, since before you went to the senate. You were a Supreme Court contender. You take words as seriously as any man who’s ever served in the Senate.”
“You repeated that phrase,” Carlson continued. “I do not believe that you used that accidentally. I just don’t.”
Sellers pointed out that then-Republican candidate Donald Trump embarrassed Cruz in a similar fashion during the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
The former president had accused the GOP senator of purchasing the rights to use a nude photo of Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, before sharing the GQ Magazine image of the former model with one of Cruz’s Super PAC supporters to use in a campaign ad.
Trump later retweeted a meme that put a photo of Melania next to a photo of Cruz’s wife, Heidi Cruz.
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” the tweet said.
Trump also accused Cruz’s father of being involved in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy during their heated primary battle.
The personal attacks on Cruz’s family initially led him to refuse to support Trump after Trump eventually won the GOP nomination. But the Texas senator ultimately ended up making campaign calls on Trump’s behalf.
“We have to remember how Donald Trump talked about this man’s wife like a dog and what did he do?” Sellers recalled.
“And his dad,” Lemon added.
“And his dad — with these mythical fantasies,” Sellers clarified. “And what did [Cruz] do? He ran back to Donald Trump. He said, ‘Please, please, take me in.’ Donald Trump laughed and took him in.”
“Watching this now, watching [Cruz] backtrack, the only thing I think is appropriate for us to say is that we see Ted Cruz,” Sellers continued. “He does not necessarily have the testicular fortitude it takes to stand up to people who are bullying him, which is not going to put him in a good position going forward.”
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