10 of the most disturbing and ridiculous things Ted Cruz has supported

Senator Ted Cruz once again made the news for, frankly, saying something ridiculous earlier this week – claiming the Paris Climate Agreement was only good for people living in France’s capital.

In other words, the Republican from Texas pushed a willful misunderstanding of the naming of global agreement to his 1.9 million Twitter followers shortly after President Joe Biden rejoined the accord after his inauguration.

Cruz is a familiar name in American politics, and even ran for president not so long ago. The conservative hardliner is also known for being one of the most disliked politicians on Capitol Hill. 

In 2016, fellow Republican senator Lindsey Graham “joked” that “if you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you”. The former Speaker of the House called him “Lucifer in the flesh,” and  even his college roommate once summed it up by saying,

“Cruz is a nightmare of a human being. I have plenty of problems with his politics, but truthfully, his personality is so awful that 99 percent of why I hate him is just his personality. If he agreed with me on every issue, I would hate him only 1 percent less.”

So, at least it’s all out in the open. Here are some of the senator’s most egregious stances and quotes over the years:

Let’s start with the obvious:

Cruz was among more than a dozen Republican senators and 150 members of the House planning to vote against Biden’s confirmation in a joint session of Congress on January 6 – without providing any actual evidence.

Later when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and stopped the vote to confirm the electoral college tallies, some of those senators finally decided their mission was ridiculous. Yet Cruz still voted to oppose, along with a few others.

Senate Democrats have now filed an ethics complaint against him, saying he “lent legitimacy” to the violent mob.

The Cruz vs. Trump Feud

It is somewhat strange that Ted Cruz has found himself on the Trumpian side of the 2020 election, as he and Trump were initially enemies. (Side note, Cruz only decided to run for president after God sent his wife a sign.)

As the 2016 Republican primary came down to just Cruz and Trump, Cruz accused him of being a “pathological liar”, as Trump insulted the senator’s wife, and claimed his father was somehow involved in the assassination of John Kennedy.

Cruz, who Trump referred to as ‘Lyin’ Ted’, did not endorse Trump until the very last minute.

Now Cruz has really changed his tune – or made a calculated choice – to be on Trump’s good side.

In 2018, he wrote a wrote a profile of Trump for Time magazine, where he praised him:

“President Trump is a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America,” he said.

Backing Kavanaugh

Back in 2018, Cruz forcefully backed Brett Kavanaugh’s supreme court nomination without any real scrutiny despite credible sexual assault allegations against him. (Although he was later forced out of a restaurant because of it).

On terrorism

In 2015, Cruz claimed that President Obama should recognize the threat of “radical Islamic terrorism”… because Christians haven’t committed terrorist attacks for centuries.

(He seemingly forgot about a Christian terrorist who killed three people in Colorado a week earlier.)

Reproductive freedom

The senator actually dismissed the need for Planned Parenthood because “we don’t have a rubber shortage in America”. (Also on Planned Parenthood, Cruz made the highly offensive offhand comment that the motive of Robert Lewis Dear, who shot up a clinic, could have been a "transgendered leftist activist.")

Beyond trying to defund the reproductive healthcare clinic, Cruz is a long-time advocate for overturning Roe v. Wade and criminalizing abortion. He has also voted to reduce protections against domestic violence and campus sexual assault.

Immigration

Cruz is indeed an extreme conservative hardliner on immigration, and said he would introduce a constitutional amendment denying citizenship to children born to parents who are in the United States illegally.

During his presidential campaign, Cruz would also triple the number of border patrol agents at the Mexican border.

The Senator, who was born in Canada to a Cuban father, was also against so-called ‘Dreamers’ legislation. In 2018, deciding on whether to advance debate on creating a pathway for those whose parents brought them to the US as children, the Senate voted 97-1. 

Ted Cruz was of course the only person against it.

It looks like he doesn’t believe in climate change

In 2015, Cruz bluntly told National Public Radio that “the scientific evidence doesn’t support global warming”. Enough said.

Anti-LGBTQ

Cruz has condemned same-sex marriage and calls the nation back to its sacred “Judeo-Christian” roots. He also rushed to support Kim Davis – the county clerk from Kentucky – when she didn't want to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 2015, after the Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage.

He’s not interested in voting

According to the website “HumansAginstTedCruz”, Ted Cruz won his party's nomination with the support of less than 5 per cent of Texas voters and he's missed a ton of votes in the Senate. He even introduced legislation that would make it harder for everyone to vote, and celebrated a Supreme Court decision that made it harder for minorities to vote.

He think Black Lives Matter celebrates the murder of police

At a campaign stop for his presidential run, Cruz said of the movement, "If you look at the Black Lives Matter movement, one of the most disturbing things is more than one of their protests have embraced rabid rhetoric, rabid anti-police language, literally suggesting and embracing and celebrating the murder of police officers..."

So there you have it, that’s Ted Cruz for you – and the list even goes on. But don’t forget, plenty of people are now calling on him to resign, so it might be the end of 'Lucifer in the flesh’'s politics sooner than later.