At Yankees-Astros Game, Ted Cruz Greeted with Middle Fingers and Taunts

As Sen. Ted Cruz tried to watch Sunday night’s baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros at Yankee Stadium, some greeted him with waves and handshakes. Others taunted him and flipped him the middle finger. “You suck!” one person yelled. Another followed up, “Remember when Trump called your wife ugly and then you nominated him?”

At the game that night, Cruz tweeted, “Minutes from opening pitch in Yankees Stadium. #GoStros.”

By Monday, pictures and video clips capturing all of this started to go viral, with one image circling three middle fingers and a thumbs down toward Cruz.

“Ted Cruz getting a proper Yankee Stadium welcome tonight,” the post read.

The Texas Republican shared the image himself on social media. His post of the image simply read, “scoreboard. #GoStros,” referring to the Astros win over the Yankees by a 6-5 score. Some pointed out the obvious in the comments: that the middle fingers and taunts probably had less to do with the game and more to do with his politics.

scoreboard.#GoStros https://t.co/915ltl7KBb

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 24, 2022

Cruz shared the post as he got ready for an interview on The View. During the interview, co-host Ana Navarro asked Cruz about Donald Trump’s insults against his wife and father. Trump suggested during his 2016 campaign that Cruz’s father played some part in the assassination of John F. Kennedy (without evidence) and that Cruz’s wife, Heidi, was unattractive. Cruz and Trump were facing off in Republican primaries at the time. 

“Ted Cruz getting a proper Yankee Stadium welcome tonight.” – Twitter

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Cruz would respond to the comments at the time by calling Trump a “sniveling coward” and “utterly amoral.” He also would endorse Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Since then, Cruz has become one of Trump’s most avid supporters.

On The View Monday, Navarro asked Cruz, “Were you lying then or are you lying now?”

“In 2016, we had a primary where Donald Trump and I beat the living crap out of each other,” Cruz said. He claimed his wife laughed at Trump’s insults. “We went after each other, and at the end of the day, he won,” Cruz said. “And I had a decision to make. … I could have decided, my feelings are hurt, I’m going to take the ball and go home and not do my job.”

He decided to work with Trump and become the MAGA hardliner he is today. “I had a job to do, and I had a responsibility,” he told hosts of The View.

Also on The View Monday, despite a lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud, Cruz refused to acknowledge that President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election. Instead, every time he was asked about it he would point to examples of previous elections where Democratic candidates didn’t immediately accept defeat.

“Biden is the president today,” Cruz said. “There are a lot of folks in the media that try to, any time a Republican is in front of a TV camera, try to say the election was fair and square and legitimate. You know who y’all don’t do that to? You don’t do it to Hillary Clinton.”

He added, “So it’s illegitimate when Republicans win but not when Democrats win?”