CNBC Reporter Offers Unexpected Ted Cruz Stereotype

Here comes another ethnic stereotype lobbed at Ted Cruz.

CNBC reporter Steve Liesman goofed Ted Cruz’s national origin on camera Tuesday, offering up ideas for musical interpretation of his ethnicity during a segment of “Squak Box” slamming him over the government shutdown.

“There he is!” Liesman said, as Cruz’s image popped up on the screen. “Can we get some music to go along with that, some Mexican music maybe?”

Ted Cruz’s father is Cuban-American and his mother is a non-Hispanic American, making him zero percent Mexican.

Liesman apologized for the comments Wednesday, saying that he thinks Mexican music is representative of Texas.

I thought of him only as an American senator from Texas, and in an attempt, on the fly, to choose music representing that state, I chose Mexican music.

As a musician for many decades, I've played and listened to tons of Texas songs infused with Mexican themes. A better choice would have been Country/Western or Texas Roadhouse Blues - it was a bad reach all the way around.

The pale-skinned Texas politician with the Southern drawl has been maligned in the past by liberal Latinos who don’t think he should be considered Hispanic.

Cruz is Hispanic.