On Monday afternoon, liberal news anchors on CNN and MSNBC were so desperate to find a way to exploit Hurricane Harvey and attack Republicans that they grilled Texas Senator Ted Cruz on his legitimate objections to pork barrel spending shoved into a relief bill for Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Cruz corrected their misleading descriptions of the five-year-old legislation and called out the attempt to engage in “political sniping.”

Appearing on CNN’s Wolf in the 1 p.m. ET hour, the Senator was pressed by fill-in host Jim Acosta:

I know during Hurricane Sandy, Superstorm Sandy, this became an issue, where there were some Republicans in Texas who were opposed to that funding, and now many of those members of Congress would like to see help come in as quickly as possible. I know at that time you were one of those Republicans who were opposed to that emergency funding. What is your sense of it now? Is your perspective different now, now that you’re seeing this happening in your home state?

Cruz immediately pushed back on the deceptive reporting: “Well, Jim, it’s not accurate that there were Republicans opposed to hurricane funding. Every Republican, including Texas Republicans, agreed that hurricane funding is an important and critical role for the federal government...” He further explained:

Now, there were a number of us who were concerned that that particular bill became a $50 billion bill that was filled with pork and unrelated spending that wasn’t hurricane relief. That was simply local members of Congress spending on their pet projects and two-thirds of what was spent in that bill had little or nothing to do with Hurricane Sandy....you should not have members of Congress that are exploiting disasters to fund their pet projects.

Apparently concerned that he hadn’t politicized the storm coverage enough, minutes later, Acosta could be heard in a hot mic moment asking a producer, “Can I ask about Arpaio or no?,” referring to President Trump’s recent pardon of the controversial Arizona sheriff. Evidently the producer advised Acosta not to raise the issue because it never came up in the remainder of the interview.

Over on MSNBC about half an hour later, host Katy Tur interrogated Cruz using the same liberal line of attack: “But a lot of people are pointing out that you voted against aid for Sandy after that catastrophic storm up in the northeast, that package back in 2012. And they’re pointing at you and saying you’re asking for money now when you weren’t willing to help the people in the northeast, what do you have to say to them?” Cruz replied: “Well, you know, look, there’s time for political sniping later. I think our focus needs to be on this crisis and this disaster – ”

Tur interrupted and proceeded to self-righteously lecture the Senator: “It’s not really political sniping, Senator, these are people who needed money and who needed funding right after that storm, I covered those people, many of them, just like those in Houston, lost absolutely everything they owned.”

Cruz corrected the record:

Well, Katy, of course that’s right, and the accurate thing to say is that I and a number of others enthusiastically and emphatically supported hurricane relief for Sandy. Hurricane and disaster relief has been a vital federal role for a long, long time and it should continue. The problem with that particular bill is it became a $50 billion bill that was filled with unrelated pork. Two thirds of that bill had nothing to do with Sandy....it’s not right for politicians to exploit a disaster and people are hurting to pay for their own political wish list...

A 2013 Heritage Foundation report detailed the tremendous amount of waste included in the Sandy relief bill.

Both anchors also questioned Cruz on the President’s upcoming trip to Texas on Tuesday. Acosta worried: “And we know that President Trump and the First Lady are coming down to Texas tomorrow....Is it a good idea, do you think, for the President and that entire entourage to be coming into the state of Texas right now?”

Tur fretted:

Senator, the President is talking about coming to Texas on Tuesday. Do you think it’s the right time to come considering the storm is still ongoing and could stretch into the weekend?...Do you think he’s going to be redirecting resources though that could – but could those resources be used in Houston right now and in other areas that are currently experiencing flooding?

The biased exchanges were brought to viewers by Verizon, Allstate, and American Express.

Here are excerpts of both August 28 interviews: