On MSNBC this morning, host Joe Scarborough was critical of Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas after his fiery appearance on Meet the Press yesterday.

“Can somebody tell him that he’s actually Senator of a large demographically changing state and not a spokesman for the Tea Party?” moaned Scarborough. “I was shocked!”

MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell added that she was also “shocked” reminding Scarborough that Sen. Schumer D-N.Y. was polite in spite of Cruz’s “unusual” behavior.

“It was a very unusual performance by a freshman senator who doesn’t seem to want to get along, wants to sort of start a fire here,” she said.

Scarborough was sharply critical of Cruz, for suggesting that a woman in living next to a crack house in Washington D.C. was unable to own a handgun.

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“He’s a lawyer, he knows better,” Scarborough said, reminding the audience that the Supreme Court struck down the D.C. handgun ban in 2008.

Former RNC chairman Michael Steele criticized Cruz for “talking to his base” on gun issues instead of reaching out to the American people.

“The base is there. The base is going to be a part of this,” Steele said, “But the reality of it is – it’s a lot bigger than that – particularly on the issue we’re talking about with guns when so many people see those 20 caskets and realize we have to do something different.”