In 2016, Donald Trump Said Ted Cruz “Stole” the Iowa Primary and Called for a Do-Over. See How Cruz Reacted Back Then.

Last updated on January 14th, 2021 at 06:14 am

Back during the 2016 Republican primary, GOP lawmakers had a much different reaction to Donald Trump. Chris Christie frequently bashed him before becoming an important campaign surrogate.

Lindsey Graham famously tweeted, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.” No the South Carolina senator is one of Trump’s chief sycophants.

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

But no Republican has made such a turn on Trump as Ted Cruz. After Trump called the Texas senator’s wife ugly and accused his father of being involved in the Kennedy assassination, Cruz has become his chief defender.

It was a different story following the 2016 Iowa Caucuses, which Cruz won. Trump tweeted at the time, “Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.”

During his Monday night show, Ari Melber played a clip of Cruz’s reaction at the time. The Texas senator said of Trump’s ridiculous claims, “I wake up every day and laugh at the latest thing Donald tweeted. Because he’s losing it. We need a commander in chief. No the a Twitter in chief. My girls are five and seven. I have to tell you they are better behaved than a presidential candidate who responds by insulting everyone. His reaction so everything is throw a fit.”

Watch a clip of the segment below, courtesy of MSNBC:

Todd Neikirk

Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.