Former John McCain campaign aide Nicolle Wallace told Morning Joe guest host Donny Deutsch that Ted Cruz was being “intellectually dishonest” in his mission to shut down the government in order to defund Obamacare, a strategy she felt was tantamount to lying to his supporters at the cost of the GOP’s national ambitions.
“I watch Ted Cruz up there and I say, ‘Is he not getting the memo from Christie as far as what’s getting you elected going forward?’” Deutsch said. “This ‘party of no,’ this anger, ‘I’m strong, you’re a chicken, I’m strong, you’re a chicken’—who is that talking to? It’s so tone deaf. Party of no, let’s kill Obamacare—versus, you watch what [Chris] Christie’s doing: time after time, decision after decision, moderate, moderate, moderate. Nicolle, am I missing something?”
“The problem with what Cruz is doing is it’s intellectual dishonest,” Wallace said. “[Cruz] was also asked at that event, ‘Why don’t we impeach President Obama?’ And he said, ‘Because we don’t have the votes.’ The true answer, the intellectually honest answer: ‘Because he’s not committed an impeachable offense.’ Ted Cruz is doing a whole lot of fearmongering and lying to the voters. He’s presenting an untruthful case.”