Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz traded barbs with with MSNBC's Chris Matthews Wednesday over the "partisan" nature of the Supreme Court and the need for "judicial retention" elections. When Matthews attempted to paint Cruz as a hypocrite by resurrecting the 2000 presidential election recount, Cruz crushed Matthews' failed "talking point."

While Cruz told Matthews that while he is "reluctant" to endorse judicial retention elections every eight years, he explained that he feels compelled due to increasingly partisan justices, a majority of which, he said, "are not honoring their judicial oaths."

But Matthews suggested that Cruz was now just following his own partisan bias, saying Cruz "had always been pro-Supreme Court" until now. As an example, Matthews said Cruz "loved it" when the Supreme Court "seized" the presidency from Democrat Al Gore in 2000 by ending the Florida recount saga. Cruz wouldn't let the false "talking point" stand.

MATTHEWS: If there was ever a case of partisanship or ideology getting out of hand, it was 2000 — and you loved it!

CRUZ: Those are great talking points.

MATTHEWS: But they're true!

CRUZ: How many times did they count the ballots in Florida?

MATTHEWS: Four times.

CRUZ: Four times. How many times did Bush win?

MATTHEWS: Four times. But they wanted to try one more time. Aren’t states allowed to do that?

CRUZ: The Democrats' strategy was we're going to keep counting and counting and counting and counting, and eventually maybe enough people will cheat and somehow our guy will win.

Saying "How do you know they're going to cheat," Matthews moved on from his failed argument.

H/t TheBlaze. Video via MSNBC.