CNN’s Dana Bash To Ted Cruz: What If America Had Refused Entry To Your Refugee Dad?

Ever since the Paris terror attack, Republican Presidential candidates have been doing everything possible to make political hay out of the tragedy, specifically taking aim at President Obama’s ISIS strategy and the United States commitment to take in Syrian war refugees. Perhaps none has been more craven and opportunistic than Tea Party Senator and pancake makeup enthusiast Ted Cruz. Besides taking the typical stance of calling Obama weak, Cruz has also said that America should be more willing to kill civilians and only allow entry to Christians seeking refuge.

After President Obama called out the GOP candidates for wanting to “pop off” rather than actually provide legitimate strategies and plans, CNN’s Dana Bash sat down with Cruz for an interview. While the conversation was pretty much the standard over-the-top hyperbolic rhetoric disguised as substantive policy we’ve come to expect from Cruz, Bash was able to deliver a pretty tough body blow to the Texas lawmaker that exposed his extreme hypocrisy when it comes to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Bringing up Cruz’s opposition to allowing any Syrian refugees over due to his belief that it will cause a security concern due to them being mostly Muslim, Bash asked him if about his own family history. Noting that Cruz’s dad came over to the United States from Cuba as a political refugee and was given asylum, Bash asked, “What would have happened if your father, who was trying to get from Cuba to the United States, and the political leaders said, ‘Nope, we don’t think so, because who knows? Maybe you could be somebody who could, you know, commit crimes against Americans.'”

While Cruz immediately pivoted by saying that the two issues are not the same and went on about “radical Islamism,” it is clear that this is going to be an issue for him if he continues to take this super-hawkish stance, especially when it comes to allowing refugees from a war-torn region to seek asylum in the United States. The fact is, Cruz wouldn’t even be alive if the U.S. didn’t let his dad resettle here after he fled Cuba due to upheaval there in the late ’50s. And while he doesn’t think there is any comparison, many in this country were very fearful of all things communist back then, especially anyone coming from Cuba.

Cruz isn’t the only one that may have this problem. Fellow GOP candidate Marco Rubio is also the son of Cuban refugees. And, just like Cruz, he is opposed to Syrian refugees arriving in this country. He’s also made a dumb, pandering statement about this now being “a clash of civilizations,” apparently believing a terror group represents an entire civilization and culture.

For some reason, Cruz was proud of this interview, and posted it to his website. Below is the video:

H/T Raw Story