Here's What Ted Cruz's Old Roommate Thinks Of Him

Are you a huge fan of Ted Cruz? If so, well, there are an awful lot of people who disagree — Cruz's massive personal unpopularity, most notably among his own Republican colleagues in the Senate, has been well-documented. South Carolina senator and former presidential candidate Lindsey Graham even once joked "If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you." And his former roommate clearly doesn't care for him: here are four Craig Mazin quotes about Ted Cruz that the presidential contender probably isn't thrilled with.

If you're not familiar with Mazin, that sort of makes sense — even though he's a screenwriter (notably with credits in the Scary Movie and Hangover series), that's not a career that necessarily makes for a high profile among the general public. But Mazin has become famous for an entirely different reason as the 2016 presidential race has marched on — because in 1988, while a student at Princeton, he ended up being roommates with a young Ted Cruz. And, well, let's just say he didn't enjoy the experience, a fact which he's been very vocal about in interviews and on social media alike. Here are four quotes he's dropped about his old roomie.

1. "Was Karl Marx A Satanist?"

In 2013, Mazin told The Daily Beast's Patricia Murphy that he recalled a young Cruz's curious choice in freshman year literature: "I remember very specifically that he had a book in Spanish and the title was Was Karl Marx a Satanist? And I thought, who is this person?"

2. "Pick Somebody From A Phone Book"

Another instantly memorable jab at Cruz from Mazin's 2013 talk with Murphy: "I would rather have anybody else be the president of the United States. Anyone. I would rather pick somebody from the phone book."

3. "I Would Hate Him Only One Percent Less"

During an October 2013 episode of the Scriptnotes podcast, which Mazin co-hosts, he let this gem slip about the nature of his issue with Cruz. Namely, it's not just political. In fact, it's not even mainly political: "I have plenty of problems with his politics, but truthfully his personality is so awful that 99 percent of why I hate him is just his personality. If he agreed with me on every issue, I would hate him only one percent less."

4. "He Does Not Change"

Responding to a tweet from all the way back in 2013, Mazin cautioned the world, saying that he didn't think Cruz had changed all that much from how he was back in their college days: "What you see before you now is EXACTLY who he was back then. He does not change. The way zombies and mold don't change."