Cruz says the GOP has now found the right tone for its message. Cruz: Senate GOP 'beaten down'

About 10 weeks after being sworn into office, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he’s been most surprised by the “defeatist attitude” from his GOP colleagues.

“The biggest surprise has been the defeatist attitude of many Republicans in Washington. A lot of Republicans felt beaten down, and that there was nothing they could do to stop the erosion of liberty in this country,” Cruz told The Dallas Morning News in an interview Sunday.


“I’m referring to those who have been here a long time and have suffered some difficult election results and who I think were discouraged about being able to get anything done,” he added.

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But Cruz, a tea partier, said that he believes Republicans now have momentum and have found the right tone for their message moving forward.

“I have been encouraged that the last several weeks have demonstrated that there is a great deal we can do to turn things around. Indeed, if you look at the vote on sequester, the filibuster on drone strikes and the vote on defunding Obamacare, for three weeks in a row, Republicans have stood together for principle,” Cruz told The Dallas Morning News.

“… I believe we are winning the argument,” he added. “We are doing what the American people expect us to be doing, which is standing for principle, defending liberty and defending the Constitution,” he told The Dallas Morning News. “I am hopeful the pattern of the last three weeks will prove a recurring pattern going forward. I believe that’s the direction Republicans need to go.”