Sen. Ted Cruz (R) welcomed his Democratic challenger, Beto O'Rourke, to the Texas Senate race on Tuesday night with the release of a song mocking his name. "If You're Gonna Run in Texas, You Can't Be a Liberal Man" won't exactly be winning any Grammys, but it did earn some questions from New Day's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday morning on CNN.
"You go after Beto for his name," Cuomo observed after playing a clip of the radio ad, which contains lyrics like "I remember reading stories, liberal Robert wanted to fit in, so he changed his name to Beto, and hid it with a grin."
"Look," Cuomo told Cruz. "Your name is Rafael. You go by Ted. Your middle name is Edward. That's an anglicized version of it. [O'Rourke] went the other way and has a more ethnic version of his name. Why go after it? You're both doing the same thing." (The jingle, it might be noted, is apocryphal, seeing as O'Rourke has evidently gone by "Beto" since he was a small child.)
Cruz confirmed his name is Rafael and said the ad is just having "a sense of humor," which is notably suspect given Cruz isn't exactly a comedian. Cuomo, though, let it slide, complimenting Cruz on the song's "catchy title." Watch their amusing exchange below. Jeva Lange