Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he made an appearance on ABC’s “The View” this week because he believes more conservatives need to reach audiences who don’t agree with them politically.
“It was a bit of a circus,” Cruz said during an appearance on Fox News in reference to the protesters who briefly interrupted Monday’s broadcast of “The View.” “But the reason I went on ‘The View’ is I think it’s important that conservatives reach much more broadly than just preaching to the choir.”
Viewers of the hit daytime political talk show “have only seen one partisan story the whole time,” Cruz said before mocking the hosts for their pointed questioning of him on matters ranging from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to Trump’s disparaging comments about Cruz’s wife during the 2016 presidential election.
Cruz made a number of media appearances throughout the day Monday as he promotes an upcoming book.
The senator’s comments on reaching audiences outside the GOP stands in contrast to how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) handled an invitation to appear on “The View” earlier this year.
“I didn’t know that that had been declined until I saw it in the news, because I think my staff knows better than to even bring that to me. I don’t need to be involved with some of the partisan corporate media,” DeSantis said in an interview after his office denied the request.
Segments and commentary on “The View” routinely earn condemnation from Republicans and conservatives more broadly.
On Monday, former President Trump called for Alyssa Farah Griffin, his former communications director, to be fired as a co-host of the ABC show for “misrepresented her true feelings about me and the Trump Administration in order to get her job,” in the media.