‘Stop Attacking Pedophiles!’ Ted Cruz Lampooned for Awkward Gaffe in Senate Hearing

Talk about a flub.

Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) almost certainly did not mean it when he said Democrats and Republicans should come together to “stop attacking pedophiles” — with the congressman making the unfortunate remark during a Senate hearing on Tuesday morning.

“Sen. Booker also said we should have bipartisan agreement. I think that’s a great idea — we should have bipartisan agreement,” Cruz said. “How about we all come together and say ‘Let’s stop murders.’ How about we all come together and say ‘Let’s stop rape.’ How about we all come together and say ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles.”

Cruz did not catch his mistake. He quickly moved onto sharing stats about President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., with Cruz saying homicides are down 58%, robberies are down 57%, and sexual crimes are down 40% in the nation’s capital.

A number of X users, including several self-identified members of “The Resistance” to Trump, could not help but mock Cruz afterwards. The clip was viewed about 6,000 times after being shared by “King Purcival” on X, and it led to some funny and interesting responses:

You get the idea.

And there were other eye and ear-catching moments from the Senate on Tuesday. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a bit later in the day, got into a heated verbal spat with a former Biden official after the congressman demanded to know what a “two spirit individual” is, among other “gobbledegook” phrases the official has used.

You can watch Cruz’s gaffe above, via C-SPAN.