During Sunday’s edition of CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper tore into Sen. Ted Cruz after the Texas Republican rushed to on Fox News to offer an agonizing apology to right-wing host Tucker Carlson for calling Capitol rioters “terrorists” from the Senate floor.
During a Senate hearing Wednesday, Cruz said what happened on Jan. 6, when a pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol in an attack to stop the certification of electoral ballots, was a “terrorist attack.”
Cruz said during a Senate hearing on Wednesday that what happened on Jan. 6, when a pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol in an attack to stop the certification of electoral ballots, was a “terrorist attack.”
However, Cruz received backlash from some conservatives for the statement and rushed to Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, where he reversed course to the conservative media host on that characterization, claiming the phrasing was “sloppy and it was frankly dumb” and that he was “misunderstood.”
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Carlson immediately interjected to say, “I don’t buy that,” noting that Cruz is known to be a precise speaker.
Cruz insisted he had used “sloppy phrasing,” saying he meant to accuse of terrorism only people who committed violence against police officers. “It was a mistake to say that yesterday,” he said. But Carlson reiterated that he didn’t believe that Cruz made an inadvertent error.
Tapper didn’t by Cruz’s explanation either:
“The thing is, it wasn’t sloppy phrasing,” Tapper began. “Cruz had called the attack ‘terrorism’ at least 17 times before in written as well as spoken remarks. Frankly, Cruz using the term might seem odd, not because the term is imprecise. The FBI definition of domestic terrorism is ‘violent criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences such as those of a political, religious, social, racial or environmental nature’.”
“That, of course, is what the attack was, violent and criminal to further a domestic ideological and political goal, specifically to stop the counting of Electoral votes to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president,” the CNN host continued. “Now, what’s odd is that Cruz is voicing opposition to the activity of January 6th, because they were in part inspired by his actions, by his role, and that of Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, objecting to the electoral votes for Joe Biden which was part of the twisted kabuki theater and incited the very people who attacked the Capitol, ransacking desks in the Senate chamber including Cruz’s desk.”
Watch the segment below from CNN:
