Ted Cruz defends President Trump on Russia: 'I don't see anyone concerned about this at all'

Senator Ted Cruz did an exclusive "Meet The Press" interview in which he defended Trump's shutdown amid new Russian investigations.

Cruz's words of support to the President were strongly contested by the NBC interviewer on Sunday. The interview clip is found below.

But Cruz held his stance, saying Trump's border wall plan was a "tougher" way of handling illegal immigrants than his predecessors did.

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Cruz spoke about the wall as being of significant importance. He claimed that not enough people were taking the matter seriously.

He said:

"When you get outside the Beltway, I don't see anyone concerned about this at all."

He added that the only thing the Democrats "are willing to consider is 000... that is not reasonable and that's why we have a shutdown."

In considering Trump's predecessor, Cruz stated:

"If you compare objectively, President Trump's policies to Russia compared to President Obama's policies to Russia — by any measure, President Obama was much easier, was much more gentler on Russia."

However, a Times report recently made a connection between Trump's 2017 firing of Robert Mueller to a potential Russian alliance.

At the time, Trump reportedly fired Mueller after he got frustrated by the Justice Department's focus on election interference.

Michael Schmidt of New York Times said:

"Now we know it was much broader, it has national security concerns. The FBI was afraid that the firing of Comey was a way to help the Russians stop the FBI from figuring out what they did in the election."

Meanwhile, viewers were somewhat distracted by Cruz's new beard which made a noteworthy appearance in the interview. Cruz of the new look on Thursday.

The senator accompanied Trump as he visited the Mexican border. There the President spoke to border patrol agents about the situation they were dealing with.

Twitter showed that many could not look away from the grey-haired, fully bearded chin of Cruz. Some even compared the politician to wolverine afterward.

And last Tuesday, Cruz made notable remarks about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's response to Trump's Oval Office address.

He said:

"I gotta say, watching the Schumer-Pelosi response was one of the most frightening things I've seen," Cruz says. "You want to talk about a visual? I am pretty convinced that was an actual hostage video."

Back in November, Cruz experienced defeat in the mid-term elections. He was voted out by Democrat Beto O'Rouke in Texas.

O'Rouke was praised as being outspoken after he slipped out a swear word during a concession speech on live television.

O'Rourke apologized, but he was praised online following the incident. He later thanked his supporters with a family photo featuring his wife.