Ted Cruz Spends Wednesday Morning Getting His Ass Handed To Him Over His Muslim Patrol Plan
Hours after Brussels suffered terror attacks at its airport and metro train, Republican Presidential candidate and Joe McCarthy doppelganger Ted Cruz decided to use the tragedy to his advantage and toss some anti-Muslim red meat to conservative voters. In a statement to the press, the Texas Senator stated that the United States needed to ramp up its efforts to root out radical Islamic terrorism. One of his proposals was for law enforcement to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”
Obviously, Cruz thought going to the right of avowed Muslim banner Donald Trump might play well with the GOP base. And, it probably will. However, the immediate reaction from most seemed to be repulsion at the idea that we’d just invade certain areas of our cities in an effort to make us feel ‘safe.’ All for a plan that is poorly thought out and will only lead to the marginalization and dehumanization of a group of people, which would absolutely lead to more radicalization and anger.
On Wednesday morning, following his win in the Utah caucuses, Cruz appeared on both CBS This Morning and TODAY to discuss his campaign, the stupid Muslim patrol idea and the Brussels attacks. And, much to his surprise, the morning show hosts actually brought the heat, and didn’t just let him spout off his well-rehearsed talking points without pushback. Unlike the majority of the time, the mainstream media did its job, and it was made all the more glorious because we got to see the snake-oil salesman squirm.
On CBS, co-hosts Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King tag-teamed Cruz over his plan. O’Donnell pointed out that the New York City police chief denounced Cruz’s proposal, saying it will not work, while also stating that nearly a thousand NYPD officers are Muslim. After Cruz tried to slam the chief as being a Democratic “henchman,” O’Donnell retorted that America doesn’t have “ghettoized” Muslim neighborhoods like Europe, and it would be logistically impossible to patrol all of the Muslims in the nation.
Worse for Cruz, he was then cornered by O’Donnell, and had to admit that he doesn’t actually know how many Muslims are in this country. When he said that, the CBS host rightly asked, “So, you’re saying that law enforcement should surveil a number of Muslims and you don’t even know how many Muslims are in America?” This was followed by King telling Cruz that his idea plays right into ISIS’s hands, as it gives them ammunition to recruit by pointing out America is “decidedly anti-Muslim.” Of course, all Cruz could do was sputter and whine about political correctness and Barack Obama.
During his visit to TODAY, host Savannah Guthrie also held his feet to the fire. She peppered him with questions about how his plan can feasibly work and where he would have police officers ramp up their patrols. When he responded with his standard Obama-hate and complaints about political correctness, adding that the NYPD had a program in place like this for years before the new commie mayor got rid of it, Guthrie then pointed out to him that the city’s Muslim surveillance program never did a fucking thing.
“You cite that program, but it of course has been disbanded. A former supervisor of that program said that in six years, it never led to even one piece of intelligence, not an arrest, not a conviction. In fact, the supervisor was quoted as saying that it involved paying undercover officers to sit in cafes frequented by Muslims, drinking tea and eating sweets at taxpayer expense.”
Game. Set. Match.
Perhaps Cruz needs to retreat back to the friendly confines of Fox News right-wing talk radio for the foreseeable future.
