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Ted Cruz coughs up to smoking pot

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, known for brandishing his staunchly conservative views, coughed up to smoking marijuana as a teenager, NBC News has confirmed.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) talks with reporters after the Senate voted on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through the next fiscal year on on Dec. 13, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Lauren Victoria Burke/AP)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) talks with reporters after the Senate voted on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through the next fiscal year on on Dec. 13, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, known for brandishing his staunchly conservative views, coughed up to smoking marijuana as a teenager, NBC News has confirmed.

A spokesperson told the Daily Mail on Tuesday that the potential 2016 presidential candidate tried it in his teens, but did not elaborate on how many times.

"When he was a teenager, he foolishly experimented with marijuana. It was a mistake, and he's never tried it since," a spokesman told the paper.

The Daily Mail attempted to survey 10 Republicans considering a White House run, and Cruz was the only one to offer a new admission. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has also said he smoked marijuana in high school.

This article originally appeared at NBCNews.com