‘Morality does not exist for him’: Remembering Ted Cruz’s epic Trump rant

It’s the 8th anniversary of an epic anti-Donald Trump rant, one of the best rants in modern political history.

But it wasn’t a Democrat or some left-wing commentator who delivered it.

On the morning of May 3, 2016, when Trump would win Indiana’s presidential primary — and all but clinch the Republican nomination en route to him capturing the presidency — his soon-to-be-vanquished rival, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), made a last campaign push. He went to an elementary school and greeted voters outside of Wolf’s Bar-B-Q in Evansville, Ind.

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Once inside, flanked by his wife Heidi and vice presidential running mate Carly Fiorina, Cruz unleashed what he said was a previously suppressed tirade about “what I really think of Donald Trump.”

And what a tirade it was.

Eventually, of course, Cruz kissed the proverbial ring and backed Trump, even though Trump had mocked his wife’s appearance, accused his father of helping assassinate President John F. Kennedy, and gave him the nickname “Lyin’ Ted Cruz.” This year, Cruz has endorsed Trump despite the former president facing 88 felony counts across four criminal cases and being found civilly liable for committing sexual abuse and committing business fraud.

But back in 2016, Cruz’s rant was downright nuclear, as he accused Trump of being a “pathological liar,” “serial philanderer” and “utterly amoral.”

Cruz’s tirade also proved prescient: It included accusations — confirmed by testimony during Trump’s current criminal trial in Manhattan — that the National Enquirer created fake stories about Trump’s rivals to help him politically.

Cruz also smacked Trump for bullying strong women. Since then, several women have prominently stood up to Trump, including former Rep. Liz Cheney, former Trump White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis, New York attorney general Letitia James and writer E. Jean Carroll, who won a jury verdict saying Trump sexually assaulted her — and then won two cases that centered around whether Trump defamed her.

To commemorate Cruz’s rant, Raw Story is recalling the most scathing, seething and sardonic parts of the senator's impromptu speech in no particular order — with a few pop culture references for context.

Remember, it’s not a lie if …

“I’m going to do something I haven’t done for the entire campaign for those of y’all who’ve traveled with me all across the country. I’m going to tell you what I really think of Donald Trump. This man is a pathological liar. He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies, practically every word that comes out of his mouth.

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“And, in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everybody else of lying. He accuses everybody on that debate stage of lying. And it’s simply a mindless yell. Whatever he does, he accuses everybody else of doing. The man cannot tell the truth, but he combines it with being a narcissist, a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen. …

“Everything in Donald’s world is about Donald. And he combines being a pathological liar — and I say pathological because I actually think, if you hooked him up to a lie detector test, he could say one thing in the morning, one thing at noon, and one thing in the evening, all contradictory and he would pass the lie detector test each time. Whatever lie he’s telling, at that minute he believes it. But the man is utterly amoral. Morality does not exist for him.”

Trumped-up National Enquirer conspiracy stories

“Donald Trump alleges that my dad was involved in assassinating JFK. Now, let’s be clear. This is nuts. This is not a reasonable position. This is just cooky. While I’m at it, I guess I should go ahead and admit, yes, my dad killed JFK, he is secretly Elvis, and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his backyard.

“You know, Donald’s source for this is the National Enquirer. The National Enquirer is tabloid trash. But it’s run by his good friend David Pecker, the CEO, who has endorsed Trump. So the National Enquirer has become his hit piece he uses to smear anybody and everybody. And this is not the first time Donald Trump has used David Pecker’s National Enquirer to go after my family. It was also the National Enquirer that went after my wife Heidi, that just spread lies, blatant lies.

“But I guess Donald was dismayed because it was a couple weeks ago the Enquirer wrote this idiotic story about JFK and Donald was dismayed that the folks in the media weren’t repeating this latest idiocy, so he figured he had to do it himself. He had to go on national television and accuse my dad of that.”

Trump and American culture

“The president of the United States has a bully pulpit unlike anybody else. The president of the United States affects culture. I ask the people of Indiana, think about the next five years if this man were to become president. Think about the next five years — the boasting, the pathological lying … the bullying. Think about your kids coming back and emulating this.”

Venereal disease and bone spurs

“Listen, Donald Trump is a serial philanderer. And he boasts about it. This is not a secret. He’s proud of being a serial philanderer. I want everyone to think about your teenage kids. The President of the United States talks about how great it is to commit adultery, how proud he is, describes his battles with venereal disease as his own personal Vietnam. That’s a quote, by the way, on the Howard Stern show.”

Strong women

“And his strategy of being a bully in particular is directed at women. Donald has a real problem with women. … Donald is terrified by strong women. He lashes out at them.”

‘The Biff Tannen presidency’

“I don’t believe that’s who we are. We are not a proud, boastful, self-centered, mean-spirited, hateful, bullying nation. If you want to understand Donald Trump, look no further than the interview he did a few months ago in Iowa, where he was asked a very simple question: When’s the last time you asked God for forgiveness? And Donald Trump said he had never asked God for forgiveness for anything. I want you to think about that. What does that say about a person?

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“I’ve asked God for forgiveness three times today. Think about your children. Do you want your children coming home and saying, mommy, I don’t need to ask God for forgiveness for anything. Why? Because Donald Trump doesn’t. And if doesn’t, and if everyone likes him, and the media praises him, I don’t need to, either.

“This is not who we are. These are not our values. If anyone has seen the movie Back to the Future [Part]) II, the screenwriter said he based the character Biff Tannen on Donald Trump, a caricature of a braggadocious, arrogant buffoon who builds giant casinos with giant pictures of him everywhere he looks. We are looking, potentially, at the Biff Tannen presidency. I don’t think the people of America want that. I don’t think you deserve that.”

At the end of that day eight years ago, Cruz received 36.6 percent of the vote in Indiana to Trump’s 53.3, and he suspended his campaign.