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Ousted Cruz spokesman joins MSNBC

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/26/16 6:49 PM ET

Rick Tyler, who was the communications director for Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign before being fired four days ago, has joined MSNBC as a political contributor.

Tyler made his debut on “Meet The Press Daily” on Friday where he spoke out for the first time about his firing, expressing regret for an “error” in judgement before being let go from the campaign.

{mosads}”I’m not mad about it. I’m fine with it,” Tyler said of the political fallout during an interview with Chuck Todd.

Tyler said that members of Cruz’s team took him out for a farewell of sorts following his firing, joking, “It was a little bit like being at your own funeral.”

Cruz announced on Monday that he had fired Tyler after the spokesman distributed a story on social media that portrayed rival Marco Rubio as being dismissive of the Bible.

Tyler had issued a public apology and appeared on national television to take responsibility for sharing the story, which had featured a video that falsely quoted Rubio using subtitles.

But Rubio quickly used the incident to lambast Cruz’s campaign tactics.

The video showed Rubio walking through a hotel lobby before stopping by a Cruz staffer reading a Bible, with subtitles portraying Rubio as saying “Not many answers in it.”

Rubio’s campaign posted a corrected version quoting him as saying “All the answers in there.”

Rubio and Cruz have since turned their firepower on Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, ahead of Super Tuesday next week, when a dozen states hold voting.

Tags 2016 GOP primary Donald Trump Marco Rubio MSNBC Ted Cruz