Ted Cruz Reaches for the Chuck Hagel Defense

Ted Cruz was so aggressive during Chuck Hagel's confirmation hearing that he was reprimanded by fellow Republicans. On top of that, everyone thinks he's kind of a jerk. After it was revealed Cruz sees communists everywhere, the Texas Republican made a Hagel-ian defense. 

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First things first: Cruz stands by his communist remarks. The New Yorker's Jane Mayer reported Cruz once said in a speech there were more communists than Republicans at the Harvard law school while he was a student. This didn't sit well with the Cruz camp. The Texas Senator stood by his remarks, but that they came to light didn't seem to sit well. "It’s curious that the New Yorker would dredge up a three-year-old speech and call it 'news,'" Cruz spokesperson Catherine Frazier told The Blaze. "Regardless, Senator Cruz’s substantive point was absolutely correct: in the mid-1990s, the Harvard Law School faculty included numerous self-described proponents of 'critical legal studies' — a school of thought explicitly derived from Marxism – and they far outnumbered Republicans."

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Let's take a quick trip down recent memory lane. Republican Chuck Hagel was the President's nominee for Defense Secretary. The Senate confirmation hearing went on for almost a full day, thanks to Republicans unhappy with the pick. Texas Senator Cruz was a chief among Hagel's detractors in the hearing. He even brought along charts. Cruz and Hagel sparred over remarks Hagel allegedly made in speeches as far back as 2000. Eventually some nasty Hagel rumors were debunked and he finally has the votes to get through. 

RELATED: Senate Reaches Rare Bipartisan Agreement on Ted Cruz

Let's play that first line back once more, for posterity's sake: