Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) called GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s charge that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was a primary supporter of Chief Justice John Roberts “ludicrous” and “ridiculous.”
Gohmert argued that Trump should not be questioning Cruz’s judgment on Supreme Court nominations since he has donated to Democratic politicians in the past.
“I thought one of the best points made all night long was to point out the hypocrisy,” Gohmert, who has endorsed Cruz, told PJM at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
During the most recent GOP debate in Detroit, Trump addressed Cruz directly, saying, “So we’re listening to the all-talk, no-action politician, and he was the primary supporter of John Roberts, who gave us Obamacare.”
“For Trump to say he was the lead supporter – that is a lie. He said before, ‘You put him up there. He was your guy.’ That was never true. That is a lie, but here again it’s what Trump does so well,” Gohmert said, referring to Cruz’s support for Michael Luttig, a former federal appellate court judge.
“I mean he’s an amazing guy – how you can take the strength of Ted Cruz, being his intellect but especially his integrity, and start saying ‘liar liar liar’ so often and so loud that you have actually attacked a man’s strong suit, his integrity. Actually, it’s doing what Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were the best that I have ever seen in my lifetime – that is what psychologists would say is projecting, where they are liars but they project that onto their opponent,” he added.
Gohmert, a former chief justice on Texas’ 12th Court of Appeals, also criticized Trump for donating to liberal politicians mostly from New York, where his business is located.
Trump has defended the contributions as strictly for business reasons.
“I support politicians. In 2008, I supported Hillary Clinton. I supported many other people, by the way. And that was because of the fact that I’m in business. I did support very heavily Ronald Reagan. I also supported George Bush, by the way,” Trump said.
Following the debate, Politifact rated Cruz’s attack on Trump’s contributions to Clinton as half true. Cruz said he wrote 10 checks to Clinton. Politifact found that he made 5 contributions to Clinton’s Senate campaigns over the years but his 2008 election cycle donations were refunded.
“You don’t have to help liberals destroy the country as part of your business. You can make your business helping the country be stronger instead of making more money by helping people that are destroying it. I mean, the fact that he said it was a part of doing business is actually as much a condemnation as I can imagine,” Gohmert said.
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