Filmmaker Richard Linklater and the liberal-backed Fire Ted Cruz PAC are mocking the Republican Texas senator over the amends he made with President Trump after their nasty 2016 presidential primary fight.
In a new ad, which was released on Monday, actor Sonny Carl Davis mocks Cruz over his claimed toughness, quipping, “If somebody called my wife a dog and said my daddy was in on the Kennedy assassination, I wouldn’t be kissing their ass.”
{mosads}”You stick a finger in their chest and give ’em a few choice words,” Davis said. “Or you drag their ass out by the woodshed and kick their ass, Ted. C’mon, Ted.”
Among other vicious attacks from 2016, Trump threatened to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife, Heidi, and retweeted an unflattering photo of her compared to one of Melania Trump. He also pushed the unsubstantiated theory that Cruz’s father may have been involved in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
Cruz forcefully criticized Trump throughout the campaign and called him a coward. But the senator chose to support Trump after he won the GOP nomination, and he has defended that decision.
He also asked the president earlier this year to campaign on his behalf.
The ad from Linklater was released about a month before a midterm election between Cruz and Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas). While Texas has not elected a Democratic senator in about three decades, O’Rourke has gained a national following in his bid to unseat Cruz.
A new poll of their Texas Senate race released by Emerson College on Monday showed that Cruz had a 5-point advantage. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report, an election forecaster, rates the Texas Senate race as as “toss-up.”