Ted Cruz Attempts To Explain Away His Campaign Ad’s Jokes About Beto O’Rourke’s Name With Little Success

The morning after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released a “jingle” criticizing his Democratic challenger, Rep. Beto O’Rourke, after he clinched the nomination in Tuesday’s primary, the former presidential hopeful made the cable news rounds to convince his supporters (and himself) that his re-election bid was secure. The incumbent politician’s evident nervousness notwithstanding, one of the main takeaways Twitter pundits and morning show hosts like CNN’s Chris Cuomo had after watching Cruz’s campaign ad concerned its criticism of O’Rourke’s name.

“You didn’t like that dirty pull when you were running for president, and [Donald Trump] called you ‘lyin’ Ted,'” said Cuomo, who also pointed out the obvious fact that Cruz goes by “Ted” instead of his first name, Rafael. The senator seemingly acknowledged that Cuomo was “absolutely right” regarding the pair’s nicknames, but instead avoided the “why” question and launched into a soapbox about his father’s immigrating to the United States from Cuba “with nothing.” What’s more, the unsuccessful presidential candidate also tried to explain to Cuomo how comedy works regarding the ad’s musical content:

“In terms of the jingle, some of it is just having a sense of humor. You actually missed the central… the title of the song, which is, ‘If You’re Gonna Run In Texas, You Can’t Run as a Liberal Man.’ We had some fun with it.”

Leaving aside Cruz’s cringe-worthy attempt to explain the humor of changing a few words in the title and lyrics of a classic Alabama song, the internet unsurprisingly had a few things to say about the ad’s “jingle” and the comedy therein.


https://twitter.com/abbydphillip/status/971365353510113280

https://twitter.com/JamieOGrady/status/971375440802828289

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/971376292678586369

(Via CNN)