Ted Cruz Said Jan. 6 Wasn’t a ‘Violent Insurrection.’ Now He Labels Peaceful Pro-Choice Protesters ‘Mob Violence’

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz seems very confused about the definition of violence. In a Sunday interview, he characterized peaceful pro-choice protesters standing outside the homes of Supreme Court justices as “violent.” But when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 a “violent insurrection,” Cruz said he strongly disagreed.

Crowds of activists opposed to the Supreme Court’s voting to overturn Roe v. Wade — news that broke when someone leaked a draft opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito — have gathered outside the homes of Justice Bret Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts to voice their opposition. But reports from the scene have shown around 100 protesters marching peacefully from Kavanaugh’s home to Roberts’ home and have not reported incidents of violence.

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In a Sunday interview with Maria Bartiromo, Cruz tried to paint those activists as violent. “Now they’re embracing mob violence to get their partisan outcome,” Cruz said, not of the Jan. 6 mob, but of the pro-choice protesters.

The senator went on to say that Americans are “sharply divided” on the issue of abortion. But according to a CNN poll from just a few months ago, seven in ten Americans do not want Roe v. Wade overturned.

Later in the interview, Cruz claimed without a shred of evidence that the leak came from “almost certainly one of the 12 law clerks that are clerking for the three liberal justices.” So while Cruz is opposed to people gathering outside the homes of justices, he has no problem with singling out the clerks working for justices appointed by Democratic presidents.

But it’s clear that all Cruz’s bluster is play-acting. He’s aware that these are peaceful pro-choice protests, just as he at one point knew and admitted that Jan. 6 was indeed violent, calling the events of Jan. 6 a “violent terrorist attack.” But when that truth became politically damaging, Lyin’ Ted backtracked, and insisted that there was no violence in people who fought past police lines to storm the U.S. Capitol, promising to take lawmakers lives.

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