According to a 2005 Sun-Sentinel report, Cruz once praised Roberts as "one of the best constitutional minds in the country."
Cruz reportedly made that comment while explaining why, as a domestic policy adviser for George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, he brought Roberts to Florida to assist with his team's legal battle over the controversial post-election recount.
And as the Texas Tribune reported three years ago, when Bush nominated Roberts to the Supreme Court in 2005, Cruz "was an outspoken advocate for his confirmation, calling him 'brilliant' and a 'lawyer's lawyer.'"
Business Insider Ted Cruz Bashing Roberts After Years of Praise
In July 2005, Cruz, who was then Texas solicitor general, wrote an oped for The National Review defending Roberts from detractors who worried about his conservative bonafides: As an individual, John Roberts is undoubtedly a principled conservative, as is the president who appointed him. He clerked for Chief Justice [William] Rehnquist, worked in the Reagan White House, and served as the principal deputy solicitor general in President George H.W. Bush’s Justice Department.
But, as a jurist, Judge Roberts’s approach will be that of his entire career: carefully, faithfully applying the Constitution and legal precedent.
The Senate should confirm him swiftly.
Cruz also took credit for bringing Roberts into the fold of the George W. Bush campaign, when they needed someone to defend them in Bush v. Gore.
Recommendations and op Ed’s do not confirm a nomination. A nomination endorsed by Congress.
“Cruz also took credit for bringing Roberts into the fold of the George W. Bush campaign”
Cruz takes credit for a lot of things. I started out liking Cruz so I bought his book. I’m a reader. I learn more by reading what people write than by what they say. In writing we tend to reveal “signals” to our real personality. Cruz’a book is a boring tome of name-dropping in order to look “larger” than her is. That turned me off and his stretching the truth on the campaign trail has confirmed what I felt.