Cruz Rips MSNBC's Williams Over 'Kremlin' Label

Brian Williams and Ted Cruz

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tore into Brian Williams after the MSNBC anchor dubbed the lawmaker "Kremlin Cruz" during a segment last week, reports The Hill.

The dustup came after Cruz criticized a video put out by the Pentagon telling the story of a recruit who marched for marriage equality before joining the armed forces. The senator called it "woke" and "emasculating" to the U.S. military, and shared his comment along with a Russian propaganda video depicting members of its military as strong and masculine. 

Williams called the tweet a "remarkably stupid lapse of judgment" and displayed the nick-name "Kremlin Cruz" on an on-air graphic below him as he spoke during the segment on his weeknight show on MSNBC. 

Cruz shot back in a string of tweets on Friday.

2/x Now, he’s throwing a hissy fit that I criticized the ridiculously woke video that the Biden admin put out. Williams accidentally told the truth, when he describes it as “a video meant to diminish the U.S. military.”

TRUE. That’s the problem. (The Pentagon put it out.)

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 22, 2021

The Republican senator also rejected the nickname Williams gave him, saying: "I hate communists, my family was imprisoned & tortured by communists, and Brian is a shameless apologist for Russian (and Chinese and Cuban) communists." 

Cruz said he was instead arguing "that our military needs to be able to kick the ass of Russian soldiers."

Williams, who stopped hosting NBC Nightly News after being suspended for misrepresenting himself, now anchors a large portion of MSNBC's election night and major political event coverage. Cruz, who won reelection to the Senate in 2018, regularly spars with progressives and political enemies on Twitter and is widely expected to consider a run for president in 2024.