Sen. Ted Cruz accuses Democrats of using white supremacy as a political weapon

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz this week accused Democrats of weaponizing white supremacist violence in an effort to inflict political damage on Republicans.

“Unfortunately, we see over and over again efforts to politicize acts of violence,” Cruz said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on domestic terrorism, where he alleged that Democrats in Congress “try to use the charge of ‘white supremacy’ … as a proxy for attacking a political party they disagree with.”

Cruz condemned white supremacy and the different extremist groups that support it, like the KKK and the Nazi Party, calling them “unequivocally hateful, bigoted, racist morons who should be denounced and despised.”

“I do think my colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle try very hard to erase the history of the Klan, that it was formed by elected Democrats, that its leadership was almost entirely elected Democrats, that the authors of the Jim Crow laws were without exception elected Democrats,” Cruz said.

“And I also think today’s congressional Democrats try to use the charge of ‘white supremacy,’ which is undoubtedly evil, bigoted, and wrong, and weaponized by their own party, they try to use that as a proxy for attacking a political party they disagree with.”

Cruz said that in doing so, Democrats engage in “diminishing anti-Jewish violence, anti-Asian violence, violence directed at white people, violence directed at police.”

“My view is simple: violence is always wrong. Whatever your ideology, left-wing, right-wing, no wings: If you’re seeking to hurt people, it is wrong,” Cruz said. “Is violence from white supremacist extremist organizations a problem? Absolutely. As is violence from other hate groups. The Brooklyn subway shooter was a known black supremacist who called for racial violence. The Waukesha attacker, who murdered six people driving an SUV into a Christmas parade, was a viciously left-wing black nationalist bigot.”

The Texas Republican’s remarks drew a swift rebuke from U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) who noted that “87 percent” of “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” investigated by the FBI in 2020 “were white supremacists.”

Federal law enforcement data and expert studies have shown that terrorist attacks by violent extremists have risen sharply in recent years.