Trump backs senator he once called 'Lyin’ Ted' and calls his Democratic opponent a 'Flake' after his nickname for Cruz resurfaces in smack-down debate

  • Beto O'Rourke slammed Cruz as dishonest in their final match-up and resurrected Trump's nickname for the his 2016 opponent - Lyin' Ted 
  • 'Senator Cruz is not going to be honest with you. He's going to make up positions and votes that I've never held,' the Democratic congressman said 
  • Trump came to his former foe's aid in tweets that as a 'Flake' who's 'not in the same league' as the seat's incumbent
  • Trump will hold an Oct. 22 rally for Cruz NRG Arena in Houston, Texas
  • Trump and Cruz had an especially nasty fight on the campaign trail about Cruz's father, Rafael; the sitting senator called Trump a 'serial philanderer'
  • But Cruz is in an unusually competitive general election race in Texas
  • Cruz is winning but not by a lot in the red state that's turning purple

The president is coming to the defense of Ted Cruz after the Republican senator was hit at a debate with Donald Trump's charge in the last election that the Texas lawmaker is a liar.

Beto O'Rourke slammed Cruz as dishonest in their final match-up and resurrected Trump's nickname for the his 2016 opponent - Lyin' Ted.

Trump has not apologized publicly for or attempted to walk back the remarks he made about Cruz in the height of the GOP primary two years ago. 

He's thrown his full support behind the freshman senator, though, and derided O'Rourke in a Wednesday tweet as a 'Flake' who's 'not in the same league' as the the seat's incumbent. 

Beto O'Rourke (left) attacked Ted Cruz in a raucous Texas debate, calling him dishonest and resurrecting the senator's nickname of 'Lyin' Ted'

Beto O'Rourke (left) attacked Ted Cruz in a raucous Texas debate on Tuesday evening in San Antonio, calling him dishonest and resurrecting the senator's nickname 'Lyin' Ted'

The president came to the defense of Cruz after the debate in tweets but did not attempt to walk back the remarks he made about the Republican at the height of the GOP primary two years ago

The president came to the defense of Cruz after the debate in tweets but did not attempt to walk back the remarks he made about the Republican at the height of the GOP primary two years ago

He derided O'Rourke in a Wednesday tweet as a 'Flake' who's 'not in the same league' as the the seat's incumbent

He derided O'Rourke in a Wednesday tweet as a 'Flake' who's 'not in the same league' as the the seat's incumbent

'Watched the debate last night & Beto O’Rourke, who wants higher taxes and far more regulations, is not in the same league with Ted Cruz & what the great people of Texas stand for & want,' Trump declared. 'Ted is strong on Crime, Border & 2nd A, loves our Military, Vets, Low Taxes. Beto is a Flake!' 

The president said in a second message: 'Ted Cruz has done so much for Texas, including massive cuts in taxes and regulations - which has brought Texas to the best jobs numbers in the history of the state. He watches carefully over your 2nd Amendment. O’Rourke would blow it all! Ted has long had my Strong Endorsement!' 

Trump and Cruz buried the hatchet months after the Texas senator's stinging defeat to the political novice in the presidential election. 

At Tuesday night's debate in San Antonio, O'Rourke ripped open old wounds as he tried to gain the edge in the close race, telling Texans, 'Senator Cruz is not going to be honest with you. He's going to make up positions and votes that I've never held.'

'It's why the president called him Lyin' Ted, and it's why the nickname stuck because it's true,' the three-term Democratic congressman said.

Laughing through the insult, Cruz replied, 'It's clear Congressman O'Rourke's pollsters have told him to come out on the attack.'

Trump will kick off early voting at a rally in Texas next week in Cruz's hometown

Trump will kick off early voting at a rally in Texas next week in Cruz's hometown

O'Rourke has outperformed expectations in Texas, a red state that Trump won but is slowly turning purple. Still, recent polling puts Cruz ahead in the seat that was once considered solidly Republican.

Trump will kick off early voting at a rally in Texas next week in Cruz's hometown.

He promised to hold 'the biggest stadium in Texas we can find' but decided to rally supporters in a smaller arena in Houston, instead.

The Trump campaign announced Monday evening that the Oct. 22 rally would be held NRG Arena. The venue holds 8,000 people.

Cruz's race for reelection to the U.S. Senate against O'Rourke has become one of the surprisingly competitive contests of the cycle.

Up an average of seven points now according to Real Clear Politics, the sitting senator appears to be in the home stretch. But some polls this month still have Cruz's win in the margin of error.

The Trump campaign announced Monday evening that the Oct. 22 rally would be held NRG Arena in Houston, Texas. The venue holds 8,000 people

The Trump campaign announced Monday evening that the Oct. 22 rally would be held NRG Arena in Houston, Texas. The venue holds 8,000 people

Cruz's race for reelection to the U.S. Senate against Democrat Beto O'Rourke has become one of the surprising competitive contests of the cycle

Cruz's race for reelection to the U.S. Senate against Democrat Beto O'Rourke has become one of the surprising competitive contests of the cycle

Trump is coming to Cruz's rescue even though the  two men had an especially nasty fight on the campaign trail about Cruz's father, Rafael, in 2016

Trump is coming to Cruz's rescue even though the  two men had an especially nasty fight on the campaign trail about Cruz's father, Rafael, in 2016

Trump said in late August that he would be campaigning for Cruz after the Republican's home state was noticeably left off the White House's list of fall targets.

'I will be doing a major rally for Senator Ted Cruz in October. I’m picking the biggest stadium in Texas we can find,' Trump tweeted. 'As you know, Ted has my complete and total Endorsement. His opponent is a disaster for Texas - weak on Second Amendment, Crime, Borders, Military, and Vets!'

Cruz had said he would welcome him to the state, where he has been a junior senator since 2013, if the president wanted to campaign there.

'I would certainly welcome his support, and I hope to see him in Texas,' he said, according to the Dallas Morning News.

The freshman senator told the Houston Chronicle he'd spoken to the president about campaigning for him ahead of the mid-terms.

'I think we are likely to see the president down in Texas before the election,' he said.

Trump said  he would be campaigning for Cruz after the Republican's home state was noticeably left off the White House's list of fall targets

Trump said he would be campaigning for Cruz after the Republican's home state was noticeably left off the White House's list of fall targets

Cruz's home state was missing from the White House's list of targeted races, however, casting doubt that Trump would come to Cruz's rescue.

The two men had an especially nasty fight on the campaign trail about Cruz's father, Rafael.

'His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,' Trump told Fox News. 'What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don't even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it.'

Trump was parroting a National Enquirer story that claimed Cruz's father was paling around with John F. Kennedy's killer. 

The president said: 'I mean, what was he doing — what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting?

'It’s horrible,' he commented. 

Cruz's campaign called it 'another garbage story in a tabloid full of garbage' at the time to the Miami Herald. 

In a tweet that winter, Trump asked how Cruz could be an 'Evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest?'

Trump also threatened to 'spill the beans' on Cruz's wife, Heidi, and retweeted an unflattering photo of her compared to his own, ex-model, spouse, Melania. 

The Texas senator was the last man standing in the race against the businessman.

In a desperate attempt to knock Trump out in the final days of the race, Cruz called him a 'serial philanderer,' a 'pathological liar,' a 'narcissist' and 'utterly amoral.'

He refused in a speech at Trump's nominating convention to endorse the GOP nominee, earning boos from attendees. 

'I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,' Cruz said the next day. 'That pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander my wife that I am going to come like a servile puppy dog for maligning my wife and maligning my father.'

Trump said in response that he didn't want Cruz's endorsement and wouldn't accept it, even if the Texas senator offered it.

'Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself,' Trump told him.

They mended fences after the race, and Trump endorsed Cruz and a line-up of other politicians this spring at the National Rifle Association's convention in Dallas. 

The president's promise to campaign for his 2016 opponent in an unusually competitive general election race dovetails comparisons of Cruz's opponent, Beto O'Rourke, to a young Barack Obama

The president's promise to campaign for his 2016 opponent in an unusually competitive general election race dovetails comparisons of Cruz's opponent, Beto O'Rourke, to a young Barack Obama

The president's promise to campaign for his 2016 opponent in an unusually competitive general election race dovetails comparisons of Cruz's opponent, O'Rourke, to a young Barack Obama.

An article on O'Rourke over the summer suggested that the Texas Democrat could challenge and beat Trump in 2020.

'O’Rourke offers not just a path to victory in Texas but an antidote to the entire stupid artifice of American politics in the Trump era,' Snapchat head of news Peter Hamby wrote this week in Vanity Fair. 'He’s authentic, full of energy, and stripped of consultant-driven sterility. On what planet is Beto O’Rourke not a presidential contender, even if he loses?' 

Cruz is up eight over O'Rourke in a New York Times poll this month. But Emerson has the race just outside the margin-of-error with a five-point spread in Cruz's favor. 

The Cook Political Report meanwhile rates the race as a toss-up.