Joey Reed, the father of Trevor Reed, publicly praised the officials who worked to get his son freed from a Russian prison. But the Texan dad had nothing kind to say about Senator Ted Cruz.

He didn’t do anything. He’s an embarrassment to the state of Texas, let me just say that. I don’t care what or who runs against him, I will work for their campaign to defeat that son of a b*tch.

Those are pretty strong words. But after waiting two years to see his son released from captivity over charges he had drunkenly grabbed a Russian police officer, Reed was plenty mad.

There wasn’t sufficient evidence to convict Trevor Reed. But he was sentenced to nine years in a penitentiary for the charge. And now that he’s out, Joey Reed says that Ted Cruz is trying to claim credit for something he did nothing for.

Reed got an assist from Republican Senator John Cornyn and Representative Michael McCaul and Democratic Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee and Joaquin Castro. The bipartisan crew cared enough about the jailed Marine to try to get something done.

Not Cruz. And his office basically confirmed that he did nothing publicly.

They claim that Cruz couldn’t do anything over fears of antagonizing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Cruz himself put out a statement:

We were repeatedly advised by Administration officials that my taking a public role in this specific case would be counterproductive and that because of my role fighting to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, leaders in Russia may well have linked the two issues.

Jeremy Suri, a professor of history and public policy at the University of Texas at Austin told the Dallas Morning News that Cruz was nothing special to Putin. He suggested that Cruz was thinking a little more highly of his standing as an “enemy” of Putin:

He is not held in a special category by Russian diplomats, I can tell you that as a fact. Oftentimes, the State Department does ask senators and members of the House to quiet down on certain things, but rarely, rarely if ever, has Senator Cruz followed that. So it would be strange if in this case, he listened.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Ted Cruz has tried to claim credit for something good that happened, but which he actually had nothing to do with.

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