Sen. Ted Cruz was slammed by several right-wing figures on Thursday after he called the Capitol riot a violent terrorist attack.
Evelyn Hockstein/Pool via AP
- Sen. Ted Cruz was slammed by right-wing figures for his comments on the January 6 Capitol riot.
- Cruz was criticized for calling the Capitol riot a “violent terrorist attack” in a Senate speech on Wednesday.
- He backtracked on Tucker Carlson’s show, but the Trump allies don’t seem to be buying his explanation.
Trump allies like Roger Stone, Lin Wood, and Seb Gorka are laying into Ted Cruz for the latter’s comments.
The Texas senator received harsh rebukes from the right after he was heard on the Senate floor calling the January 6 riot a “terrorist attack.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson was one of the first to lash out at Cruz. Rep. Matt Gaetz followed, taunting the Texas lawmaker during a press conference on Thursday, saying that Cruz may “bend over” for the GOP establishment, but “they’ll never love you.”
Cruz went on Carlson’s show on Thursday night and walked back his description of the Capitol riot. Speaking to Carlson on the Fox star’s show, Cruz repeatedly said that he made a “mistake” because of “sloppy and frankly dumb” phrasing.
However, Carlson quickly cut Cruz off, saying he didn’t “buy” the senator’s explanation.
“I’ve known you a long time since before you went to the Senate. You were a Supreme Court contender. You take words as seriously as any man who’s served in the Senate,” Carlson told Cruz. “And every word—you repeated that phrase, I do not believe that you used that accidentally. I just don’t!”
Cruz continued to backpedal on his comments, saying that he “wasn’t saying the thousands of peaceful protesters supporting Donald Trump are somehow terrorists.”
Cruz then tweeted on Thursday, asserting that he used a “dumb choice of words,” along with a clip of his appearance on Carlson’s show.
However, influential voices on the far-right don’t seem to be buying Cruz’s explanation, either.
Sebastian Gorka, a former national security aide for Trump who recently had his phone records subpoenaed by the January 6 committee, called Cruz an “an insult to the word ‘conservative.'”
“I hope Texas tells him, and that man will never, ever be re-elected,” said Gorka on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Roger Stone, a Trump diehard who recently appeared for a deposition for the January 6 committee, wrote on Telegram on Thursday: “Congratulations to Senator Ted Cruz. You will never be the Republican nominee for president, and, in fact, you’re enjoying your last term in the US Senate.”
“I understand why people take an instantaneous dislike to Ted Cruz when they first meet him — they are only saving time. What a pandering, Philandering asshole. A BUSH Republican through and through,” wrote Stone.
Trump-allied lawyer Lin Wood also weighed in on Cruz, writing on Telegram: “I’ve already sent Ted a note to his active iMessage address regarding how I feel about his stupid statement. Have you?”
Wood also included a link to Cruz’s personal email in his Telegram message, seemingly encouraging his supporters to send messages to Cruz.
Representatives for Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Cruz recently said that he would run for president again “in a heartbeat,” suggesting in an interview in December that because he was once the runner-up for the GOP presidential nomination, that he could win a place on the GOP ticket in 2024.
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