Ted Cruz is 'just a coward' for backing Trump, former aide Rick Tyler says

https://news.yahoo.com/ted-cruz-is-just-a-coward-for-backing-trump-former-aide-rick-tyler-says-222307266.html


Suzanne SmalleyReporter
,Yahoo News•August 24, 2020

Rick Tyler, a leading Republican analyst and so-called Never Trumper, told Yahoo News on Monday that his former boss Sen. Ted Cruz is “just a coward” for publicly supporting Trump even though Cruz knows he’s a bad president.

“You have a choice in this world: You can be a political leader and talk about principle,” Tyler told the Yahoo News “Skullduggery” podcast. “Or you can do the popular thing — [and] in Texas supporting Trump is a popular thing — and try to hold all your supporters together because you want to maintain power. But you know what? Sometimes you’ve just got to be willing to give up power. Sometimes you’ve got to be willing to stand for the truth.”

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Tyler maintains Cruz privately indicated to him more than two years ago that he is not pleased with the Trump administration.

“Basically, we’re just going to have to get through this, was the sense that I got,” Tyler said of the discussion with his former boss.

For Tyler, the assault on truth under Trump has been particularly hard to tolerate. Trump’s opening address at the Republican National Convention on Monday, Tyler said, “was just full of lies.”

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“I think the Republicans will get wiped out in this cycle, and if the Democrats can demonstrate that they can be a stable governing majority, I think they can be in a majority for a very long time, as they were for 40 years,” Tyler said. “I hope the Republicans do get wiped out, and I’m cheering for the Democrats. Not because I believe in their policies — I don’t. My philosophy right now is you need to kill the alligator that is closest to the boat. And the alligator that is closest to the boat is Donald J. Trump.”