Republican Senator Ted Cruz appeared before one of America’s most strident anti-women, anti-choice, anti-gay organizations and tried to drum up his Tea Party and Evangelical base yesterday. Speaking before members of the Susan B. Anthony List — mis-named for the feminist anti-slavery and voting rights activist — Cruz made an ugly and essentially false claim about pro-choice Americans.
The Texas Tea Party Republican told the audience that pro-choice Americans are walking “arm-in-arm, chanting ‘Hail, Satan,’ embracing the right to take the life of a late-term child.”
About half the country is pro-choice. Please let me know if you’ve seen any of them walking “arm-in-arm, chanting ‘Hail, Satan,’ embracing the right to take the life of a late-term child.”
Talking Points Memo gives Cruz the benefit of the doubt and paints some context over his ugly remarks.
He was referencing a right-wing story about a few young people caught on video chanting “Hail, Satan” to counter pro-life protesters singing “Amazing Grace” at the Texas state capitol last July during the debate over a restrictive anti-abortion bill the legislature ultimately passed.
That’s generous.
The video is here, and we’ve found zero proof that the teenagers in the video were actually pro-choice activists. Regardless, a handful of kids does not speak for half the nation.
//www.youtube.com/embed/pKrfCow6Lyk
(More on the abortion rally here.)
TPM adds that “Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said abortion rights supporters support a ‘culture of death,'” and “former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) also likened abortion to killing the elderly.”
Reminder: these are the people who want to be your next president.
For their part, the Susan B. Anthony list has been partnering with NOM, the National Organization For Marriage. They have appeared together at events to grill candidate, both for the Chair of the RNC and for the GOP presidential nomination.
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr