During Wednesday’s debate, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said his past support for the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts “was a mistake and I regret that.”

Cruz argued during CNN’s Reagan library debate that former President George W. Bush nominated Roberts “because it was the easier choice” and he wasn’t “willing to spend political capital to put a strong judicial conservative on the court.”

But as critics are pointing out, Cruz, who worked on the Bush campaign and later in the administration as a lawyer, was effusive in his praise of Roberts’ nomination in 2005.

“John Roberts should be a quick confirm,” he wrote in the National Review.

“As an individual, John Roberts is undoubtedly a principled conservative, as is the president who appointed him,” Cruz said.

During the debate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush defended his brother’s selection of Roberts, who has angered conservatives for upholding Obamacare, by saying broadly: “I think he is doing a good job.”

“You can rewrite history I guess Ted,” Bush said, “but the simple fact is, you supported him because he had all the criteria that you would have thought would have made a great justice. And I think he is doing a good job.”

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