Brian Williams certainly doesn’t mind taking aim at Ted Cruz and other Republicans on his MSNBC show, and on Friday the 11th Hour host was more than happy to call out “Kremlin Cruz” for his cosigning Russian propaganda in a bizarre attack against the US military.
Cruz’s screed about “wokeness” comparing Russian military propaganda to a US military ad drew lots of reaction from both sides of the political spectrum and Cruz continued to defend his comments into the weekend. But Williams ripped Cruz for sharing Russian propaganda enthusiastically and called him out on his own emasculation on Friday night.
“By all accounts, Ted Cruz did not like the nickname ‘Cancun Cruz,’ though he tried joking about it, acting like it didn’t matter,” Williams said. “He really won’t like being called ‘Kremlin Cruz’ after his latest and remarkably stupid lapse in judgement.”
Williams detailed the tweet Cruz sent out and shared the videos he was talking about, then pointed out that the Texas politician is all-too gleefully sharing Russian propaganda.
“The Russians already reach deep into our society. Our disinformation is already all over our media and it quietly tears us apart,” Williams said. “Imagine how happy it makes them to have yet another advocate among Republican members of the Senate.”
Finally, Williams pointed out a rebuke many had for Cruz and his take on masculinity, especially in the wake of his kowtowing to Trump in recent years.
“A number of people pointed out that real emasculation is Donald Trump saying your wife is ugly,” Williams said. “Donald Trump saying your dad was involved in the JFK assassination and then publicly genuflecting to Trump and devoting your political career to seeking his approval.”
Cruz had his own response to Williams on Saturday on Twitter as “Kremlin Cruz” trended, and he also defended his comments on TV over the weekend as well.
“I don’t need James Bond or Jason Bourne to have an anxiety disorder,” Cruz said, which briefly caused Bourne to trend on Twitter as well. “I need them to be able to find out who the terrorists are that are trying to kill us so that we can kill them before they kill us.”
That was the latest in a long string of pop culture references where it’s clear Cruz is completely misunderstanding the films he seems to enjoy. As many pointed out, Jason Bourne and James Bond aren’t exactly perfect soldiers in extremely good mental health.
But canonically, James Bond had ptsd from his wife’s betrayal and death that led to an unhealthy drinking/womanizing coping habit, and Jason Bourne was literally mentally broken by the org he worked for and that’s why he’s on a rampage…against that same org. https://t.co/CTIj07ivfa
— M.M. Schill (@mm_schill) May 22, 2021
Jason Bourne was literally brainwashed, which caused deep impacts on his mental health.
That was literally the central plot to the books and movies. https://t.co/iujX9z45rs
— Pé (@4everNeverTrump) May 22, 2021
Jason Bourne’s entire deal is that the CIA broke him and he hates them https://t.co/hCrXsHnYrW
— Nick Stellini (@StelliniTweets) May 22, 2021
/stares directly at the camera, takes a deep breath and prepares to launch into a long powerpoint presentation about James Bond’s PTSD and alcoholism and Jason Bourne’s PTSD and anxiety from the movies and books https://t.co/ZBOF58cbVx
— Alex, the Voiceless
(@Chatvert) May 22, 2021
The entire plot of the Jason Bourne franchise is that he’s been traumatized to the point of amnesia, while the last few James Bond films were about his own trauma and the addictions he had coping with them.
Other than that, brilliant point, senator.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) May 22, 2021
Cruz, of course, had his own chorus of supporters praise him for defending masculinity and military toughness in the long and unending culture war. It won’t solve much of anything, but it did get him another new nickname this week, I suppose.