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One year ago today, after former President Donald Trump's months-long smear campaign against the validity of the 2020 election, a mob of pro-Trump extremists stormed the United States Capitol. They shattered windows, ransacked offices, smeared excrement across the walls, beat police officers, and called for the execution of any elected official they deemed disloyal to Trump.
The deadly failed insurrection had even Trump's most devout loyalists in Congress shaken. When the joint congressional session that the riots disrupted finally reconvened, members of Congress on all sides fervently condemned the violence.
In the year since, however, the Republican playbook has evolved to repeatedly downplay the insurrection and even promote absurd conspiracy theories regarding its origins. Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin insisted the riots were nonviolent. GOP Congressman Andrew Clyde of Georgia likened the insurrectionists to tourists. Far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson has devoted an entire documentary series to the fantasy that the riots were organized by intelligence officials to suppress Republican voices.
But in a Senate committee hearing earlier this week, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas—who eagerly promoted Trump's election lies and objected to the electoral votes of swing states Trump lost—stepped out of line.
Watch below.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) calls today a “solemn anniversary” of “a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol.”
Interesting that Cruz doesn't specify who the terrorists in this case were. pic.twitter.com/kKYkKxckLI
— The Recount (@therecount) January 6, 2022
Cruz said:
"We are approaching a solemn anniversary this week. 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."
Normally, a Republican elected official showering law enforcement with praise is far from controversial.
But to conservatives scrambling to deny the GOP's culpability in the attack, this talk made Cruz a traitor.
Cruz will Never be my President. Never. https://t.co/8QqgxRSyTn
— Gretta Graceland (@GrettaGraceland) January 6, 2022
Disgusting https://t.co/WvGBhQdKSs
— TheRightJoe (@OneRightJoe) January 6, 2022
Not even gonna lie. @tedcruz is an idiot. Everyone who put him in office needs to see this and think about who they will vote for next https://t.co/1bSbIVQHMW
— CryptoChad the same Baptist as last year (@1689CryptoChad) January 6, 2022
Traitor and coward https://t.co/F3dzy35zel
— 🅰🆅🅸🅳 🅸🅽🆂🅾🅼🅽🅸🅰🅲 (@BrazosChef) January 6, 2022
Hey, look kids... This is what a sellout looks like. @SenTedCruz = #sellout https://t.co/8TN8E4ass5
— Tanker🏴☠️19KILO20🏴☠️ (@hi54wvu) January 6, 2022
Cruz is Compromised. And singlehandedly just ended his own career. #TedCruzIsATraitor https://t.co/ZKxMi63Kqm
— LETS go Brandon (Elizabeth Coles) (@SoCalPatriot56) January 6, 2022
Critics of Cruz on the left haven't forgotten his own embrace of the lies that incited the attack.
This Ted “we will not go quietly into the night” Cruz? pic.twitter.com/k1fFNqI2iL
— Scott Babcock (@scottbabcock) January 6, 2022
Ted Cruz now rightfully calling 1/6 a terrorist attack. He’s just neglecting to mention he helped facilitate it. Because he sees accountability is coming.
— Tim Hannan (@TimHannan) January 6, 2022
So let me get this straight. Ted Cruz helped fire up the insurrection, then tried to overthrow a free and fair election and is now calling his magat supporters terrorists. (And they are) so now both the right and left thinks he is a POS. You can’t make this stuff up. Bravo
— Arizona Dem ready to help boot Sinema (@mammylovesc) January 6, 2022
Cruz was one of only a handful of Senators who continued with objections to certified electoral votes even after the attack.