Ted Cruz Takes Verbal Beating on Tucker Carlson’s Show for Calling Jan. 6 Insurrectionists ‘Terrorists’ (Video)

All it took was a dressing down by Fox News host Tucker Carlson for Sen. Ted Cruz to walk back his comments condemning the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

The Texas Republican appeared on Fox Thursday night and it didn’t take long for Carlson to tear into the senator for calling last year’s Capitol riot a “terrorist attack.”

Carlson was having none of it and unloaded on Cruz for letting the words come out of his mouth a day earlier.

“Senator, thanks so much for coming on. There are a lot of dumb people in the Congress. You are not one of them,” Carlson said Thursday. “I think you’re smarter than I am. And you never use words carelessly. And yet you called this a terror attack when by no definition was it a terror attack. That’s a lie. You told that lie on purpose, and I’m wondering why you did.”

Cruz had an answer at the ready and said his previous comments were “sloppy” and “frankly dumb.”

“Well, Tucker, thank you for having me on,” he said. “When you aired your episode last night I sent you a text shortly thereafter and said listen, I would like to go on because the way I phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy and it was frankly dumb.”

Carlson continued to berate Cruz: “I do not believe that you used that accidentally.”

For those who missed his earlier comments, Cruz said Wednesday at a Senate Rules Committee hearing: “We are approaching a solemn anniversary this week … And it is an anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage, incredible bravery, risk their lives to defend the men and women who serve in this Capitol.”

Shortly after he made the comment, Carlson lambasted him on Wednesday night’s episode of his show. He continued to criticize Cruz to his face.

“I’ve known you a long time since before you went to Senate. You were a Supreme Court contender. You take words as seriously as any man who has ever served in the Senate, and every word, you repeated that phrase, I do not believe you that used that accidentally. I just don’t,” the Fox News host said.

Carlson is far from Cruz’s only critic. The senator has been slammed by both Republicans and Democrats, who called him a hypocrite, considering he rejected certifying the 2020 presidential election results after Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.