Reports began to surface late Friday that the shooter — Robert Dear of North Carolina — told investigators as he was being led away in handcuffs, “No more baby parts.” Dear’s reported phraseology is the same that several Republican candidates have used on the campaign trail as a scandal over undercover Planned Parenthood videos has grown. The Texas Tribune reported on Sunday afternoon that when Cruz was asked about the shooting and the anti-abortion stance, the GOP candidate remarked, “The media promptly wants to blame [Dear] on the pro-life movement when at this point there’s very little evidence to indicate that.”
Cruz continued:
“It’s also been reported that [Robert Dear] was
registered as an independent and a woman and a transgendered leftist activist. If that’s what he is, I don’t think it’s fair to blame on the rhetoric on the left. This is a murderer.”
The comment appears to stem from a mix-up in voter registration attributed to the shooter; Cruz said on the issue, “We know that he was a man who was registered to vote as a woman.” A lengthy conversation with Dear’s ex-wife Pamela Ross by The New York Times did not reveal any indication about Dear’s sexuality or the accusations from Senator Cruz of Dear being transgendered.
[h/t Gawker]
[images via Wikipedia Commons]
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