Ted Cruz inadvertently tells the truth and seeks pardon.
In his novel, he says: “”He became merely a mouth that spake, a hand that signed, whatever was expected of him,” George Orwell wrote in a classic paragraph about a character who succumbed to party pressure in “1984″. His only concern was to figure out what they wanted him to confess and then confess it as soon as possible before the bullying resumed.”
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican, debased himself for the most wretched of reasons.
Ted Cruz walked back his use of the word “terrorist” when describing the January 6 attack on the Capitol during a dramatic back-and-forth with Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday. On several times, Carlson questioned the Republican senator’s logic. On Carlson’s Wednesday night broadcast, Cruz was chastised for referring to January 6 as a “violent terrorist attack on the Capitol.” When questioned why he used the word “terrorist” during his Thursday night address, Cruz described it as “sloppy” and “frankly foolish.”
The Texas Republican classified the Capitol incident on January 6 as a “violent terrorist strike” just a few days ago. This didn’t strike me as very noteworthy – Cruz has previously used roughly comparable language — and the choice of words is clearly defendable.
Domestic terrorism is defined by the FBI as “violent, illegal acts conducted by people and/or groups to achieve ideological goals coming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature,” according to Politico’s article.
Despite this, Cruz was met with a rapid and vehement pushback from the right, which clearly caught Cruz’s attention.
As a result, the Republican legislator rushed to Fox News to apologize, telling Tucker Carlson — one of the far-right voices who had been particularly harsh in slamming Cruz’s rhetoric a day earlier — that he was sorry for mistakenly stating the truth in a way that wounded conservatives’ feelings.
The senator’s main point was that he only meant to refer to those who attacked police officers as “terrorists,” prompting Carlson to explain that individuals who attack police officers should be tried as criminals, but that doesn’t mean they’ve committed terrorism.
Despite the fact that the interview was unpleasant to watch (the host closed by saying he didn’t trust the senator’s pitiful explanation), Cruz promoted the part on social media. “I made a poor choice of words yesterday, and regrettably, a lot of people are misinterpreting what I meant,” he apologized in a tweet.
Cruz, who finished second in the Republican presidential primary in 2016, has made no secret of his ambition to run for president once more. A few weeks ago, he made a compelling case for himself as a prospective frontrunner. As a result, it’s not unexpected that the Texan moved quickly to put out a political fire he started, assuring far-right radicals that he’s still on their side.
Cruz, however, revealed an unmistakable flaw in the process. He played the part of a sorry puppy last night, rolling over and showing Carlson his belly.
Cruz has never been known as a self-respecting man — after all, he did adopt a sycophantic posture toward Donald Trump even after the former president went after the senator’s wife and father — but this was plain humiliating.
Cruz reminded Carlson last night, as part of his case, that he had a key role in seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election., including voting against recognizing President Joe Biden’s victory as one of only eight Republican senators. “On January 6, I was standing on the Senate floor, disagreeing to the election results, while thousands of people were standing up to defend this country,” Cruz recounted to the Fox News presenter.
True, but it only adds to the tragedy. Cruz was viewed as a political outcast a year ago at this time, with some blaming him for the deadly violence on Capitol Hill. There were even legitimate calls for the senator’s resignation.
He made no apologies at the time.
In other words, Cruz held to his guns a year ago when he should’ve apologized, and he apologized this week when he should’ve stayed to his guns.
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