Hero or heel? Conservatives’ attacks on Sen. Ted Cruz underscore GOP infighting over Jan.
WASHINGTON — A year ago, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was a hero to many on the far right as he led the charge to delay the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump.
“What the hell is going on here?” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Wednesday night on his program, which is watched by millions of Americans, as he slammed Cruz and other Republicans for “repeating the talking points that (Attorney General) Merrick Garland has written for them.”
“You’re making us think maybe the Republican Party is as worthless as we suspected it was,” Carlson said. “That can’t be true. Reassure us, please, Ted Cruz.”
Carlson was just one of many conservatives targeting Cruz, who appeared on Carlson’s show Thursday night to explain what he called his “sloppy and, frankly, dumb” phrasing.
“What I was referring to were the limited number of people who engaged in violent attacks on police officers,” he explained. “I think you and I both agree if you assault a police officer you should go to jail. That’s who I was talking about.”.
Political scientists say the blowback illustrates the tension within the GOP a year after the Capitol attacks, as many Republicans take care not to attack the former president or his supporters, who still hold remarkable sway within the party.
Republicans in Congress were largely absent on Thursday as Democrats held events to commemorate the anniversary, where they offered public remembrances and framed the insurrection as an existential threat to the country.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris walk through the Hall of Columns after speaking at the U.S. Capitol to mark the one year anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by supporters loyal to then-President Donald Trump, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, in Washington.
Stefani Reynolds/AP“It is clear to me that, in this moment, we are not out of danger,” said U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, a Houston Democrat. “Our democracy is still under attack, and all of us — every single American — has a role to play in preserving, protecting and defending it.”
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, called it shameful that some Republicans have sought to downplay what happened since.
“I was here for 9/11,” she said. “On that day we were running together. We were running as Republicans, Democrats, Americans. We were fearful together. We were hopeful together.”
On Jan. 6, “the big lie was looming,” she said, asking how Trump’s followers could be “against what was so good about America — the peaceful transfer of power.”
Republicans over the past year have targeted members of their own party who have gone against Trump. The caucus booted U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming from the No. 3 spot in House GOP leadership after she spoke critically of the former president. In Texas, U.S. Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, has drawn a group of GOP primary challengers who decry his support for an independent commission to investigate the riot.
‘The most clear dividing line’
“Republicans have a pretty strong appetite for going after their own when they don’t hew the party line,” said Joshua M. Blank, research director at the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Politics Project. “The party line is really heavily driven by fealty to the former president, rather than fealty to ideology or facts or anything else.”
“This is a reflection of, right now, what is the most clear dividing line in the Republican party — whether or not one is willing to allow any distance between themself and the former president,” he said.
As for the backlash against Cruz: “What’s surprising is that someone who is a darling of some of the most conservative elements of the party and extreme elements of the party could generate such a backlash with such a minor statement.”
Sixteen Texas Republicans joined Cruz last year in objecting to counting Electoral College votes for Biden, even after the insurrection. A year later, they seem even more hesitant to assign blame for it.
U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, a Sugar Land Republican who helped Capitol police fend off rioters trying to storm the House chamber, said the majority of people in the building that day did little wrong — describing the danger and violence in terms other Texas Republicans have used.
“If you were inside the Capitol that day and you broke windows and you destroyed property, you should be held accountable. If you assaulted a law enforcement officer, you shouldn’t just go to jail, you should go to prison. And I think most of the American people agree with that,” Nehls said in an interview with “PBS NewsHour.”
“There were many people inside that Capitol building that day that were not doing any of those things,” Nehls said. “They weren’t touching anybody, they weren’t assaulting anybody. They were walking around inside that Capitol building — many of them were grandmas, many of them almost appeared to be ushered in.”
On Jan. 7, 2021, Nehls had recalled telling the rioters through the broken glass at the door to the House: “This is un-American, and this isn’t the way we should conduct ourselves.”
Cruz has consistently called it a ‘terrorist attack’
Cruz, too, has been careful in how he describes the riots. On Thursday he tweeted that “‘insurrection’” is a political term used by Democrats and the corporate media to slander every Trump voter across America.
“It’s transparent political theater,” he wrote.
Cruz had repeatedly called it a terrorist attack before recanting Thursday.
“What happened at the Capitol was a despicable act of terrorism,” Cruz said in an interview with Hearst Newspapers two days after the riot. “The violent criminals who attacked the Capitol should be fully prosecuted and they should go to jail for a very, very long time.”
Cruz sparked the outrage this week during a Senate Rules Committee hearing with Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger on Wednesday.
“We are approaching a solemn anniversary this week and it is an anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol, where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage, incredible bravery, risk their lives to defend the men and women who serve in this Capitol,” Cruz said.
The blowback came as Cruz may be preparing for another presidential run — a potential rematch with Trump, who beat Cruz for the Republican nomination in 2016. Cruz, who placed second in the 2016 primary, recently said he would run again “in a heartbeat.”
Democrats, meanwhile, were using the anniversary of the riot to push for federal voting rights legislation that has been stuck in the Senate for months.
“The next attempted coup is already underway,” U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a San Antonio Democrat, tweeted. “It’s underway in pinstripe suits inside the Capitol building who are determined to suppress the vote and purge the voting rolls — to expand nationwide what Abbott attempted right here in Texas.”
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