Ted Cruz Tells Kimmel About His Short-Lived Dream of Becoming an Actor

Jimmy Kimmel continued his guest list of presidential candidates on his show Wednesday night. 

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both joined the late-night host to discuss the election process, and Senator Ted Cruz was the latest to sit down on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. The senator talked with Kimmel about his brief  stay in Los Angeles and his real feelings toward Donald Trump. 

Kimmel started off his monologue by addressing his recent round of political guests, sharing some tweets from fans who were furious about what they saw as Kimmel taking sides in the election. “It adds up to everyone hates me,” he concluded. 

“My own uncle — my godfather, even — castigated me on Facebook last week for having Hillary Clinton on, saying I embarrassed the family,” Kimmel said, “as if I haven’t embarrassed the family a million times before!” 

Introducing Cruz as “the only person running for president to publicly admit to have been bitten by an octopus,” Kimmel welcomed the senator to the stage. 

“Have you been tempted by our decadent liberal ways?” Kimmel asked. 

Cruz, in town for a fundraiser, told Kimmel that California actually “has the most Republicans,” to which Kimmel responded, “well, we have a lot of people.” 

Cruz also told Kimmel about the summer he lived in Los Angeles, when he briefly thought about becoming an actor while working at a law firm. “Everything was great, except I didn’t have good looks and I didn’t have talent.”

Asking about his popularity within Congress, Kimmel brought his attention to recent comments made by fellow Republicans John Boehner and Lindsey Graham, who called Cruz “Lucifer.”

“When you stand up to Washington, they don’t like it,” Cruz explained. “Compared to Donald Trump, I am the quiet, shy, soft-spoken one.” The senator also addressed Obamacare, which he called “a disaster,” before Kimmel asked him a few more personal questions about Star Wars, his favorite cereal, yoga and his first concert (Men at Work). 

But first, “Who do you like better, Obama or Trump?” 

To which Cruz diplomatically answered, “Donald is a unique individual,” before getting more graphic. “If I were in my car and getting ready to reverse and saw Donald in the backup camera, I’m not confident which pedal I would use.” 

This is the first Kimmel appearance for Cruz, who also appeared on CNN’s Town Hall the night before. Kimmel’s other guests for Wednesday were Mike Epps and St. Lucia.