Ted Cruz made his late night TV debut by appearing on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”
Credit: NBC
Ted Cruz, the controversial Senator from Texas, made his late night TV debut Friday, appearing on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” The host didn’t lob his usual softballs.
“I’ve been reading a lot about you lately,” Leno said by way of a welcome, “and they describe you as aggressive, arrogant and abrasive. Accurate?”
“I don’t know that you can believe everything you read,” Cruz replied, smiling. “You know, what I’m trying to do is do my job. And occasionally people don’t like that.”
Among the issues Leno neglected to avoid was gay marriage, which is not one of the liberties the Tea Partier supports.
“I support marriage between one man and one woman,” he explained. “But I also think it’s a question for the states. Some states have made decisions one way on gay marriage. Some states have made decisions the other way. And that’s the great thing about our Constitution, is different states can make different decisions depending on the values of their citizens.”
Leno also brought up Cruz’s dad, Rafael Cruz, a Dallas pastor who’s been in the news for saying Obama’s support of gay marriage was a Communist plot.
“My father is a pastor. He’s a man of deep integrity and you know, some folks have decided to try to go after him because they want to take some shots at me,” Cruz said. “I think the critics are better off attacking me. My dad has been my hero my whole life.”
Cruz did not recite any Dr. Seuss.
