Senator Ted Cruz of Texas spoke Sunday on NBC Meet the Press and said critics treat Justice Clarence Thomas far more harshly than they treated Antonin Scalia, who held equally conservative views. Cruz attributed the difference to racial prejudice against a Black justice who rejects expected political positions. He added that Thomas will not let others dictate his beliefs.

Host Kristen Welker cited Cruz’s book on Thomas’s time at Yale Law School and his later turn to conservative legal principles. She asked how Cruz answers people who say Thomas later rejected court rulings that had aided his own path, including his vote against race-based college admissions.