Liar, Liar … Ergo Pants on Fire

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 27: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks with reporters following the Senate Republicans' policy lunch on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
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I was an early adopter to the belief that Ted Cruz is an odious weasel. But I did not make him out for a bald-faced liar, mainly because I would think that habitual lying would cause too much cognitive dissonance with his self-righteousness. But the new claim that he didn’t know his family had health insurance, I’m sorry, that does not add up. Our Tierney Sneed walks us through the original lie, the holes in the logic of the original lie, the campaign admission that the story was false and now the holes in that admission.

Apparently Ted just didn’t realize his family had health insurance. Do you have health insurance? I bet a bunch of you are saying “yes” and “no” and “yes, but I’m afraid I’ll lose it” or “yes, but it costs too much” or “yes, but Obamacare blows” and a million other things. But, “you know, Josh, not really sure if I have health insurance or not” is I bet something no one is saying. And this is from the guy who wants us to believe he didn’t realize until he was in his early 40s that he was a Canadian citizen.

I’m sorry. Ted got an Ivy League education at Princeton, went on to Harvard Law School and is by all accounts – including his own – one of the sharpest people around. He’s argued multiple cases before the Supreme Court. It never occurred to him that being born in Canada and lived there until he was four made him a dual citizen? He’s completely ignorant of the most basic elements of nationality law in either country? That doesn’t make sense. Just like it doesn’t make sense that he somehow didn’t realize he had health care coverage. All the holes in his story make this totally obvious: he lied. He just plain made it up because it fit too perfectly with his political message.

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