‘I Don’t Apologize for Thoughts or Prayers’: Ted Cruz Dismisses Senate Gun Violence Hearing as ‘Theater’ in Fiery Partisan Screed
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) railed against Democrats for their “sociological” contempt for thoughts and prayers during a Senate hearing on gun violence on Tuesday.
The hearing takes place following last week’s shooting in Atlanta that killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women, and the attack in Boulder Monday night, which killed 10 people.
“All of us lift up in prayer the families in Boulder, Colorado, the families in Atlanta that lost their lives, including the police officer in Boulder, Colorado,” Cruz began. “I can tell you in Texas we’ve seen far too many of these.”
The senator went on to list several shootings that occurred in Texas cities while he was also there, saying, “I was in Sutherland Springs in that beautiful sanctuary where a monster murdered innocent people. I’ve been to too damn many of these.”
The senator agreed that something must be done to stop these senseless acts of violence, yet still railed at his colleagues for their “ridiculous” theatrics every time there is a mass murder.
“Every time there’s a shooting we play this ridiculous theatre where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders!!” Cruz exclaimed before railing against Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) for claiming that Republicans have no solutions to combatting violence.
Cruz went on to address a piece of legislation he introduced with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to target violent criminals, felons, fugitives, and “those with serious mental disease,” and put them in prison for trying to purchase illegal guns.
Several reports have claimed that Robert Aaron Long, a man charged with eight counts of murder after attacking several spas in Atlanta, purchased his gun legally after passing an instant background check.
“We will learn in the coming days and weeks the exact motivation of the murderers in Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado,” Cruz said. “But we already know this pattern is predictable, over and over and over again, there are steps we can take to stop these crimes. And you know what the steps aren’t? The steps aren’t disarming law abiding citizens. Every year firearms are used in the defensive capacity to defend women, children, families roughly a million times a year in the United States.
“The democrats who want to take away the guns from those victims would create more victims of crimes not less. I agree it’s a time for action, and by the way, I don’t apologize for thoughts or prayers. I will lift up in prayer people who are hurting and I believe in the power of prayer, and the contempt of Democrats for prayers is an odd sociological thing. But I also agree thoughts and prayers are not enough — we need action.”
Watch above, via C-SPAN.
