Critics have accused Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz of being too cocky, and he agrees — at least, he says he used to be.
Cruz admits in his new book,
"A Time for Truth," that he burned too many bridges working on the George W. Bush presidential campaign in 2000 to get a senior-level job in the administration he thought at the time he deserved. But the setback made him a better person, Cruz said Sunday on
"Meet the Press."
"I had enjoyed a lot of success. Almost everything I'd laid my hands to had gone well. And I was far too cocky for my own good," Cruz said.
Following Bush's successful campaign, Cruz desperately wanted to have a senior job in the White House.
"I wanted to be Michael J. Fox's character in 'The American President,' young, idealistic staffer in the White House, in the Oval Office, saying, 'Mr. President, do the right thing.' And that didn't happen," Cruz said. "And it became clear it wasn't going to happen because I had burned too many bridges."
Cruz said his wife, Heidi, told him the letdown fundamentally changed him. Cruz said he believes he never would have been elected to the Senate had he gotten that White House job.
"You can't run a grassroots campaign if you're an arrogant little snob," Cruz said. "As I discuss in the book, I needed to get my teeth kicked in."
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Cruz also discussed the recent Supreme Court Obamacare ruling that allowed people in states without their own exchanges to keep receiving subsidies.
Cruz said the court has "stopped being an umpire" as Chief Justice Roberts once described it and "became a player on a team."
"They put on an Obama Jersey, they got out the eraser, they erased terms in the statute and rewrote it joining the Obama administration," Cruz said. "That was wrong. That's why I reluctantly called for a constitutional amendment for periodic judicial retention elections."
Cruz refused to bash fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump over his controversial statement about immigrants,and on immigration, Cruz said he is "long-term optimistic and short-term pessimistic."
He said he believes there is bipartisan agreement outside of Washington that "we need to finally do something to stop illegal immigration."
But he refused to say what he would do with the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already here despite multiple attempts from host Chuck Todd.
"I think we should secure the border and then have a conversation at that point," Cruz said. "Stop using the Washington approach of 'I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.' The American people aren't going for it."
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