Ted Cruz in epic feud with Karl Rove

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Karl Rove are at loggerheads over what happened when former President George H.W. Bush donated to the future senator’s campaign for Texas attorney general in 2009.

The episode began on Saturday, when conservative outlet Breitbart News published an exclusive excerpt of Cruz’s new book, “A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America,” which comes out this Tuesday. In this first report, Breitbart cites passages from the book in which Cruz, who was seeking the Texas attorney general position in 2009 and 2010, wrote that Rove “suggested that the elder Bush was too old to have any good judgment anymore” after Cruz told Rove that the two had met as he was seeking Bush 41’s endorsement.


According to the book passage cited by Breitbart, the phone call between the two escalated to the point that Rove demanded that Cruz return the $1,000 check from the elder Bush. Cruz wrote that Rove implied to him that if he made the donation public, Bush’s son, former President George W. Bush “would endorse my opponent and come out publicly for him — a threat that was fairly striking given that I had devoted four years of my life to working as hard as I could helping to elect Bush and serving in his administration.”

At the time, Cruz reportedly wrote, Rove was raising money for the younger Bush’s presidential library.

“Texas donors were giving the Bushes tens of millions, including major donors who were supporting the Dallas state rep who wanted to run” to replace Greg Abbott as Texas attorney general, Cruz wrote, according to the report, adding that those donors “were now berating Karl” and that former President George W. Bush would endorse the unnamed state representative, revealed to be then-state Rep. Dan Branch, if he made the elder Bush’s donation public.

Cruz agreed not to draw attention to the elder Bush’s endorsement, even after the former president’s office sent him draft endorsement text from the former president and former first lady Barbara Bush.

Cruz dropped out of the race for attorney general after Abbott decided to run again for the position. (Abbott is now governor.)

Rove fired back in a Medium post published Sunday, taking issue with Cruz’s claim that he was raising money for Bush 43’s presidential library when they talked in 2009 as well as the assertion that Bush 43 would have endorsed a Cruz rival for attorney general.

“I am accustomed to being criticized for others’ political benefit, but am disappointed in how Senator Cruz decided to raise the name of one of the finest presidents our country has ever known, President George H.W. Bush,” Rove wrote.

Cruz responded, also on Sunday, by publishing email correspondence in an attempt to set straight what his campaign called “Rove’s blatantly false recap of their 2009 conversations.”

According to the email chain posted on Cruz’s site, Rove responded to Cruz’s explanation of Bush’s meeting, clarifying that the library donors were the parties most concerned.

The email from Rove:

“thanks — I appreciate your doing what you can to keep this down — the distress you mention is not mine or 43 — it is the people raising money for the library who are also Branch fans and will not understand why one part of the Bush family is for not-the-guy while they are raising money big bucks for library.

“Thanks too for clarifying that you asked to visit with 41; be as nonchulant [sic] as possible about the gift and we’ll muddle through.”

Rove’s chief of staff, Kristin Davison, told The Washington Post that she could not confirm that email, as Rove did not have that particular one in his archive or have any recollection of it. Rove does have records of the other two emails posted, she said, according to the report.