Ted Cruz Trots Out Old Biden Joke, Apologizes as Veep Mourns Son

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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had to pull his cowboy boots – or at least his metaphorical foot – out of his mouth in Michigan Wednesday when he apologized for peppering remarks at a Republican Party gathering with Joe Biden jokes during the same week the vice president lost of his oldest son to brain cancer.

Cruz, the keynote speaker for the Livingston County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner, trotted out an old standard that has always worked in the past:

“Vice President Joe Biden. You know the nice thing? You don’t need a punch line,” he said, according to The Detroit News. “Honestly, it works. The next party you’re at, just walk up to someone and say, ‘Vice President Joe Biden’ and just close your mouth. They will crack up laughing.”

Or not.

No one among Republicans gathered at the Crystal Gardens banquet center in Howell, laughed much. More jokes fell flat as well. Later, when Cruz was asked by a reporter if he had any thoughts about Beau Biden’s sudden death Saturday, the senator said it was “heartbreaking and tragic.”

“And our prayers are very much with Vice President Biden, with Jill,” he said. “It’s a tragedy no one should have to endure.”

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Cruz walked away when asked why he told a Biden joke while the vice president and his family were mourning, The Detroit News said.

Within an hour, he thought better of his jokes and issued a prepared mea culpa.

“It was a mistake to use an old joke about Joe Biden during his time of grief, and I sincerely apologize,” Cruz said in a statement. “The loss of his son is heartbreaking and tragic, and our prayers are very much with the vice president and his family.”

Cruz, one of a couple of dozen Republicans seeking the White House, is battling Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida for the support of the party’s Tea Party contingent.

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Ted Cruz file photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr / Creative Commons