Stephen Colbert said that former GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz once asked the “Late Show” host to “humanize” him before an appearance on the CBS comedy show.
“I don’t want to betray my guest because there’s what happens on-camera and off-camera, but I guess it’s okay because I don’t think [Ted Cruz] understood what he was asking,” Colbert said on Saturday at New York Mag’s Vulture Festival, according to the New York Post.
Colbert continued: “I said, ‘Thanks for coming on, I like to have republicans on,’ and he goes, ‘Well, I was hoping we could humanize me.’”
Cruz was famously Donald Trump’s closest competition in the GOP primary race, but many people didn’t think he had the personality for the Oval Office. Cruz had a hard time coming off as likable and was nicknamed “Lying Ted” by Trump.
According to the Post, Colbert told the crowd, “Step 1, don’t ask anyone to humanize you. That’s something humans don’t ask.”
Colbert tried to help Cruz, offering advice that if he wanted to come off as human then he shouldn’t use the “Late Show” appearance as another excuse to do his stump speech.
“He goes, ‘That’s hard’ and I said, ‘So is being human,’” Cobert told the crowd, according to the Post.
Cruz didn’t take the advice and immediately went into his stump speech on the show that night, Colbert said.