It was just last week that conservative media figure Glenn Beck announced a shift in his political allegiances. “I’ve made my decision — I’m out. I’m out of the Republican Party,” Beck told his radio audience. “I am not a Republican; I will not give a dime to the Republican Party. I’m out. I highly recommend — run from the Republican Party. They are not good.”
Beck, a former Fox News host, raised a series of complaints about the far-right party not being nearly far-right enough, but he specifically complained about the Republican establishment “taking on people like Mike Lee and Ted Cruz and they are torpedoing them. Knowingly.”
With this in mind, though Beck may be done with the GOP, he’s clearly still on board with some of notable GOP politicians. Politico reported yesterday:
Before Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for president on Monday, he gave a call to an old friend, Glenn Beck, to discuss how he arrived at his decision to run.“I had a great conversation with Ted Cruz on Friday night,” Beck told his radio listeners Monday. “He told me that he had spent about two hours with his children and his wife in prayer, making the final decision this week…. I have to tell you, that means the world to me.”
Yesterday morning, of course, the Republican senator kicked off his presidential campaign at an evangelical university in Virginia, and moments after he stepped off stage, Cruz got back on the phone — with Glenn Beck.
“Thank you for your clarion voice each and every day,” Cruz told Beck, adding, “Glenn, every day you are a voice that is a clarion voice for freedom of the Constitution. I thank you for your leadership.”
Wait, it gets better. Right Wing Watch reports that Cruz called Beck’s radio show again today.
After declaring that his presidential announcement was “electric” and “inspiring,” Cruz told Beck that it was made even better by the fact that “the very first voice I spoke to after the announcement speech was you.”After Beck noted that “being our friend” might not necessarily be a good thing for Cruz’s campaign, Cruz assured him that “I am very proud to dance with who brung me.”“We will stand together happily,” Cruz promised.
Good to know.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."