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Editor, News-Register:
How sad it is to witness the self-induced public degeneration and humiliation of Sen. Ted Cruz (Republican, Texas), recently on display on the "Tucker Carlson Tonight" program on the Fox News Channel, when he incredibly discounted his earlier verbiage, which appropriately, had described the violent insurrection that took place on January 6, 2021, at our nation's capitol as "a violent terrorist attack," in response to which host Carlson claimed that Senator Cruz had "lied about the insurrectionists and had slandered all Trump supporters," which caused the senator to retract his previous rhetoric, explaining that such comments were "only to describe those who had assaulted police and other security officials" during the aforementioned event.
However, such behavior as a result of Senator Cruz's apparent willingness to value political expediency over self-respect, candor and integrity, has become quite commonplace, and has led, I feel, to his personal as well as his professional detriment.
Cruz, born on Dec. 22, 1970, in Calgary, Canada, to his immigrant father from Cuba, and his mother being a U.S. citizen, made him also a U.S. citizen at birth, began his political career with much promise, having earned his undergraduate degree cum laude in Public Policy from Princeton University, followed by his graduation cum laude from Harvard Law School.
He began his career as a United States Senator on Jan. 3, 2012.
Senator Cruz gained much national notoriety as an outspoken leader of the conservative Tea Party movement during the Obama years, and in 2016 ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president of the United States, losing to the individual who went on to become our nation's 45th president, Donald J. Trump.
During his campaign, Trump and Cruz were not all averse to resorting to shameless name calling, Trump often referring to Cruz as "lying Ted" and also made very uncomplimentary comments about Cruz's wife, and even accused Cruz's father of being somehow involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
None of which Trump has ever apologized for or retracted, but even in spite of all this, Cruz continues as a shameless sycophant of Trump during his tenure in the White House, which continues to this day, which strongly indicates that Senator Cruz shamelessly prioritizes his political aspirations over family loyalty, as well as his personal integrity and credibility.
This said, the troubling metamorphosis of Senator Cruz is reminiscent of the embarrassing decline of another former Republican political icon, Rudy Giuliani, whose days as the highly respected "America's mayor" are now, sadly, long behind him.
Richard Hord
Martins Ferry