Liz Cheney says Ted Cruz should be 'defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution' after attacks from Trump

• Rep. Liz Cheney blasted Sen. Ted Cruz over his remark that she had "Trump derangement syndrome."

• Cheney brought up attacks that Donald Trump made against the senator's family in 2016.

• "A real man would be defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution," she told CNN.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming on Wednesday accused Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas of failing to defend his wife and his father from attacks by Donald Trump after Cruz remarked that she had "Trump derangement syndrome."

During a Tuesday appearance on the Fox News program "Hannity," Cruz told the host Sean Hannity that the former president "broke" the congresswoman.

"I've always liked her, I haven't agreed with her on everything — I think she's a bit too eager to send in the Marines and to invade countries all over the planet — but I've always liked her, and I think she falls into the category of people who Donald Trump just broke, just shattered," he said.

"She hates Donald Trump so much that it just has overridden everything in her system," he added. "She's lashing out at Trump and Republicans and everything, and she's become a Democrat, and it's sad to watch what has happened. It is Trump derangement syndrome."

While speaking with CNN's Melanie Zanona, Cheney said the Texas Republican, who ran against Trump during the tumultuous 2016 GOP presidential primaries, should have stood up in defense of his family when Trump attacked them.

"Trump broke Ted Cruz," Cheney told the network. "A real man would be defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution."

In March 2016, Trump went after Cruz's wife, Heidi, in a heated exchange in which he retweeted an unflattering image of the senator's wife.

Trump, seeking to compare Heidi Cruz with his wife, Melania, sent out the tweet with a caption that said "No need to 'spill the beans.' The images are worth a thousand words."

Cruz responded furiously at the time.

"It's not easy to tick me off," he told reporters. "I don't get angry often, but if you mess with my wife, if you mess with my kids, that will do it every time. Donald, you're a sniveling coward, and leave Heidi the hell alone."

In May of that year, Trump also blasted the senator's father, Rafael Cruz, by bringing up a dubious National Enquirer story that sought to link the elder Cruz to Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy in November 1963.

The Enquirer article claimed that Cruz had been photographed in the early 1960s distributing leaflets in support of the Cuban leader Fidel Castro alongside Oswald.

At the time, the Cruz campaign described the Enquirer story as "cheap tabloid garbage."

Cheney, who has a deeply conservative voting record in office but has become one of Trump's most prominent Republican critics since the January 6 insurrection, hasn't bit her tongue at party members incensed over her vocal criticism of the former president.

When a CNN panel last week discussed Cheney's hypothetical chances as a 2024 presidential candidate — an option as she faces a difficult reelection fight in Wyoming — Cruz mocked the congresswoman's chances when the panel asked whether she had a "lane" in the New Hampshire primaries.

The Texas Republican responded on Twitter, writing: "Yes. It's called the Democratic primary."

Cheney then replied to Cruz's remark, calling out the senator for what she said was his courting of voters who weren't aligned with the country's founding document and original principles.

"I know you're posturing for the secessionist vote, Ted," she wrote. "But my party, the Republican party, saved the Union. You swore an oath to the Constitution. Act like it."

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